The Girl and the Lugia
by kathlaida-princess
Summary: *SEQUEL AVAILABLE* Sometimes, to bring a friend back, we must do unimaginable things, such us transform into the reason why our friends went away... With the special appearance of the most beautiful creature in the world, the Sea Guardian itself, Lugia!
1. Karen, the most popular strange girl

THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA

By kathlaida-princess

Summary: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favourite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

CHAPTER I

KAREN, THE MOST POPULAR STRANGE GIRL

_What do you want to do when you grow up?_, was the question that always embarrassed Karen Springfield.

"I'm going to find a way to the Pokemon World!"

And all the children laughed at her, making her feel miserable. But what could she do? It was the plain truth…

Karen Springfield, age 15, resident in L.A., United States of America, the most popular girl at school. Not that it was abnormal… With her straight blond hair, emerald-green eyes, elegant curves and radiant smile it was no wonder why every boy started drooling when she passed by. Even her personality was charming. Karen was always polite, nice, funny, reliable and considerate, and she had the best grades in class! Nevertheless, there's always a thorn in every rose, and Karen's was her great imagination. Since the first time she laid her eyes upon that TV show, she fell in love with Pokemon, and started believing she would be the greatest trainer in the world.

As she was still a young girl by then, everyone joined the fun, supposing it was just a joke. A boy specially liked to be with Karen. His name was Daniel and grew to be her best friend later. He had short dark hair, always damped in gel, shiny dark brown eyes and an irresistible brunette skin. They were always there for each other.

But real problems only started when she got older and her supposed joke became something to worry about. As she went on with her belief of a real Pokemon World, people started to think her crazy, started to avoid the subject, even though she discussed it with a fiery passion.

"I'm telling you, when I get there, I'll get everyone a Pidgey. You know, it's quite easy to get one, and it evolves into Pidgeotto, which is adorable…I think it's a good idea!"

"Hey, Karen, we've got the point, ok? Now, let's just talk about anything else, right?", one of Karen's girlfriends was constantly saying, as she got annoyed whenever the conversation reached Pokemon.

But Karen was usually so involved in her thoughts about her dream that she would ramble around the subject for hours and hours and all her friends would eventually lose their patience.

Daniel was always there when that moment came, and was always the storm calmer. But he knew that one day it would reach a limit, and his calm look and soothing voice wouldn't be enough to put out all the fire.

Personally, he thought it was about time for Karen to stop that non-sense and saving her dreams for herself. But he cared too much about her to hurt her feelings and always kept silent. Besides, he was the only support Karen had, and he wouldn't abandon her on that difficult moment.

However, unfortunately, the last drop fell sooner that what he expected, and things didn't go well…

That time, Karen was surrounded by her usual feminine group of friends, just like she was whenever Daniel wasn't around. Suddenly, as usual, she started talking about Pokemon, and guess what, about her childhood dream. And that was the last happy moment Karen had with her friends.

"Can't you JUST stop talking about that non-sense at least one day! Am I the only one who sees how stupid this is?", Karen's friend said.

Upon hearing this outburst, Daniel knew it was good idea staying nearby.

"Come on, Nadine!", laughed Karen. "It's not like you don't talk about your wishes too!"

"Yeah, I do, but at least mine are REAL and don't exist only in the pathetic imagination of a girl who still lives in her childhood! Grow up already, Springfield!"

_Now it's the right time to stop this mess_, thought Daniel. And, as usual, he was right.

And the mess even got worse. It reached a point where Daniel had to stop Nadine from pouncing on Karen. But Karen wasn't willing to give up her point.

"You can be joking around with what I say, but at least Daniel believes me! Don't you, Daniel?" she asked, looking at her best friend, hopeful.

Daniel wished she would never asked that. A shiver went through his spine and his heart felt divided. _I must tell I believe her_, he thought. _She will be so hurt if I don't... But this will happen again, eventually, and if we are unlucky enough, it will be worse…_

"I'm sorry, Karen, but I agree with Nadine, you should stop with those absurdities."

Immediately, Daniel regretted his answer. The look of betrayal on Karen's face was too much for him to bear, and everything got worse when she started crying. His heart-broken best friend ran away while sobbing and Daniel did his best to go after her, but Nadine stopped him.

"Don't. It's better for her this way. You did the right thing," she said.

But the dark-skinned boy didn't agree, specially when he found out that it was the last time he would see her and he was the only reason why she left…

**END OF CHAPTER**

This was really sad, huh? Oh, well, I know it's a bit short, but there will be lots of chapters that way. However, I hope you like it and please read & review! Doesn't that review button seem appealing?

The first one to review gets to name the next character, which is a Typhlosion!

kathlaida-princess logging out….


	2. Memories

THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA

By kathlaida-princess

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favourite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's note**: Here I am again! First of all, I want to thank my reviewers **Mewraven** and **gothshadowdragonofhell**, it really made be more willing to write this chapter! But I must say, you forgot to name the Typhlosion! No worries, you still have a chance, as _he _(it's a male Typhlosion) will only appear in chapter 3. Second, I've finished the plans for this fic and it won't be longer than ten chapters. For the ones who are wondering, my next fic will be a Takari one, as I consider myself as the greatest Takari fan in the world (TAKARI RULES!).

Third, I know you've been waiting for this, so on with the story…

CHAPTER 2

MEMORIES

_A thousand days had made him older, since the last time he had seen her pretty face_, so the music goes… and it was quite true. It had been three years since Karen had gone missing…

The runaway of his best friend had changed Daniel in some way, making him more abandoned, more silent, more miserable. He blamed himself for what happened, thinking she would still be by his side if he had supported her, but what could he do now?

He still remembered the terrible day when Karen's mother phoned him, more worried than he had ever heard her, trying to figure out where her only daughter had gone. He didn't need to think much to reach a conclusion, but he wished he could never feel his heart sink like he felt that day. The guilt inside him was killing him slowly, by making him give up of everything that made him feel happy.

Three years ago, he would use that wonderful sunny day to go for a walk with Karen, watch the swallows on their gracious flight, go for a stroll on the beach so many fun things. And it didn't really matter what they did, if they were together, anything would be fun and unforgettable. How Daniel missed those times…

Now, the eighteen-year-old boy would spend all of his times in the library, trying to forget his sadness with a good book, but every love story brought his feeling for Karen up; every adventure book made him remember of all their own adventures; every horror book made him recall the dreadful day when she had gone missing…

He wondered where she was. Was she lost in some of L.A.'s most dangerous streets, treated like garbage? Or had she found a place where people accepted her? Daniel prayed it was the second one, but what he actually wished was for her to come back. No one could ever imagine his desire to apologize to Karen. If he only had a chance…

After having finished reading Juliet Marillier's _Dark Mirror_ (A/N: sorry, it's one of my favourite books, it's beautiful!), Daniel had gone to the library one more time to choose another book. Since everyone was constantly saying that he needed some fun his life, something to cheer him up, Daniel walked up to the children's section, searching for something funny. He walked past _The Chronicles of Narnia_. He didn't need to read more about a girl that believed there was a strange world inside some wardrobe. So, he went on and, suddenly, a book caught his attention, as if it had a small voice and was begging him to open it.

Daniel answered its sweet calling and found himself opening the mysterious book. _Only a child's pure heart will see all the Truth_, was written on the first page. Something in that phrase lighted up the desire of flipping through the pages inside Daniel's body. Once again, curiosity took its best. And what the young man saw was unbelievable!

The book was quite amazing, there were many maps of strange places he had only heard about in stories and fairy tales. But there were proofs that those places were real: authentic photographs, feathers from bizarre birds, highly detailed descriptions of the places, you name what more!

Daniel resumed flipping furiously through the pages, his heart beating much more rapidly, even though he didn't know why…

However, the reason became clear when he abruptly stopped in one page, staring at it like an ox staring at a palace. What he saw made his heart skip a bit and his mouth release a scream.

"It can't be!"

The librarian shushed him, but he wasn't hearing. He had finally found an answer, he could finally find his friend…

**END OF CHAPTER**

He, he, he, a cliffhanger! I really hate to read them, but it's really fun to write them.

Well, I really hoped you liked this chapter, because I really enjoyed writing it! For all my previous reviewers, don't forget to name my Typhlosion!

The song I mentioned in the beginning is "Here without you", from the 3 Doors Down. I know the lyrics aren't exactly like those, but I had to adapt them.

I'm sorry if the fic has any errors, you see, as I'm Portuguese, sometimes is kinda complicated for me to write in English.

If you're interested in a good reading, I highly recommend those books Daniel was staring at. Specially the Dark Mirror.

Once again, I'm sorry for the short chapter, but it's much easier to write this fic that way…

I sure hope you're liking this story, so please, read and review! I'll be really happy if you do (seriously!)! Thanks again to **Mewraven** and **gothshadowdragonofhell** for your reviews!

Well, I won't occupy more of your time! See ya next time!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	3. A Whole New Life

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favourite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Note: **I'm back! Thanks again to my reviewers **Gundamknight **and **gothshadowdragonofhell**! It makes me really happy to know that this fic is being read, even though it is my first one! But it seems that everyone has forgotten about my Typhlosion's name! Anyway, I have already decided the name, as his first appearance is in this chapter. Last but not the least, I'm sorry if there is any error in this fic, I'm Portuguese, so I'm trying my best. Now, on with the story!

**CHAPTER 3**

**A WHOLE NEW LIFE**

Oh, how she wished everyone could see her now! Would they still tease her after what they saw, or would they apologize for all the harm they did?

Because Karen's life had never been as wonderful or as right as it was right then. She had told everyone that she would eventually find the Pokemon World, and she **did **find it.

By the moment she had run away, she already had all the data she needed to make her dream come true, and the answer was in a child's book, which taught her to have always an open mind. She followed the map with such great devotion, using her outstanding cleverness to solve the problems in the way, never losing faith in her dream. And her journey eventually reached an end, when she arrived to her destiny.

The door to the Pokemon World was exactly as the book described it. It was in the middle of a forest, deep inside the trunk of an oak-tree, and it was a hole that led to a tunnel underground, which snaked through old roots and the soft soil until it reached a cave by a lake. At first, there was no way we could distinguish our world from the Pokemon World. But when we heard the sound of a Pidgey instead of the happy tweeting of a sparrow, we would know that something changed. The same happened to Karen when she arrived to the Pokemon World, and she couldn't remove a big smile from her face.

But she knew that it was just the beginning of that adventure! From then on, she started looking for someone that could help her catch her first Pokemon. It was then when she bumped into the young Professor Elm, and he was happy to let her make the typical choice: between Chikorita, Cyndaquil or Totodile. She chose Cyndaquil and named him Chandler.

After that day, Karen travelled around the whole Jotho region, just like any other Pokemon trainer, and caught the rest of her Pokemon. The place was just as she imagined it! Almost no pollution, except from the one caused by the Koffings or the Weezings. The weather was always nice, even when it rained, as there were always Pokemon making everything enjoyable, by singing, dancing or even just being there. Karen had never been as happy as that.

And it was wonderful to meet people that were just like her, that had the same passion for Pokemon, that automatically believed in the only thing her best friends didn't. That journey had bee worth it just because of that.

After meeting loads of trainers, defeating all the gyms and leagues, establishing the most powerful relationship with her Pokemon and living the most in that whole new world, Karen bought a nice house by the beach with the money she had won with her huge success. The place was quiet, near a forest, isolated from everything, but there was a small village not so far away where Karen would buy all the food and everything a house needed.

She had a wonderful life there: she had proven herself that she was able to fulfil her dreams and she had found the place where she belonged.

However, nothing is perfect and Karen still regretted something. The thing she missed the most from our world was her only best friend Daniel. After so much time, she still thought that maybe she hadn't been correct with him. She had known Daniel for so long, enough time to know that he would never hurt her, unless he had a good reason. For some moments, she wondered what Daniel was doing right then. Was he worried about her, or was he taking all the blames, just like he usually did? She couldn't bear to think that he was suffering because of her, but, after all, he was the one who didn't believe her, and she did the right thing. One shouldn't be in a place where one doesn't belong.

So there was Karen, daydreaming while sitting on her outdoor rocking chair, when Joey, her Furret, brought her back to reality (or the Pokemon World, if you may).

"Jotho to Karen, hello!" said the cute Pokemon. Joey had always been some kind of James Bond: he was the girls' temptation and was always ready for action.

Karen woke up abruptly.

"Yeah, yeah, what's up?" she asked.

"Come on, get up, quickly! Marion's on the phone!"

Karen got up from the chair lazily and dragged herself to the telephone inside. Along the way, she tried to understand what her Pokemon, her best friends in that world, were doing. Ross, her Togetic, was up a tree, trying to find an eatable apple. Not far away, Rachel, her Pidgeot, was keeping an eye at Ross, while resting in the house's roof. Karen knew that Rachel had a crush on Ross, but she would let things sort out naturally. Chandler, her Typhlosion (remember when she chose Cyndaquil?), and Monica, her Ampharos, were swimming in the swimming pool. I know it seems strange to see a fire Pokemon on water, but it was part of their training: they had to be prepared for everything and anything. Like Ross and Rachel, Chandler and Monica had a crush on each other, but they had already admitted it. Lastly, Joey the Furret and Phoebe the Wigglytuff were also together, but she was watering the plants of Karen's exquisite garden and Joey was just talking to her, just like he always did.

Karen's Pokemon were really well trained: they had learned to face their weaknesses (for example, we have Chandler swimming against all odds) and after three years of great friendship with their owner, they had learned to speak the human language.

Carrying on, Karen finally got to the phone and picked it up. It was true that she could use her computer to speak to Marion, but her best _human_ friend in that world hated that kind of technology. At that point, Marion and Phoebe had something in common: if something was too different from the natural way, both of them wouldn't like it. Karen spoke:

"Hi, Marion! Why all the rush?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten!" Marion said, seeming shocked. "Today were going to the mountains, remember? Didn't you want to sketch the Ursaring up there?"

Karen slapped her forehead. "Of course, I've almost forgotten! Yes, yes, I'm coming! I'll pick you up by the Big Pine-tree in ten minutes!"

"Alright. I'll be waiting! Good-bye, Karen!"

"See ya, Marion!"

Quickly, Karen ran for her sketch notebook and her updated Pokedex. She had been waiting to draw the sleeping Ursaring for some time now and it was always a chance she had to spend some fun time with Marion. She put everything she needed inside her backpack and ran outside, not without stopping by the mirror. She was wearing a white beach shirt with a matching long white skirt. It wasn't the ideal clothing to wear in the mountain, but she hadn't the time to change. When she got outside, she called out for Rachel, who was still staring protectively at Ross. She got startled when she heard Karen's sudden voice.

"Hurry up, Rachel! We've got to get to the Big Pine-tree in five minutes!"

Languidly, Rachel landed near her owner, and she installed herself comfortably behind her ten-feet-long wings. They immediately took off directed to the forest. Karen still couldn't believe how she almost forgotten about that trip! The Ursaring were Pokemon that were only by the beach in winter, when they had to hibernate.

Being a Pidgeot, Rachel flew very fast, and got to the Big Pine-tree just in time. However, being punctual as she always was, Marion had already been waiting for some minutes.

"Really, Karen, you should be more careful about the time! One day a Lugia appears by your house and you'll miss it just because of your laziness!" If there was something that Marion hated, was when people underestimated the importance of time.

"Chill, Marion! It will be just fine! Rachel," Karen called out, "you can fly away, but don't get too far. We never know when we might need you."

"Right, Karen," the Pokemon said, before it took flight to a tree nearby.

After that, the two friends climbed the beautiful mountain, noticing how spring started to make herself obvious by having flowers blossoming (with some Sunflora among them) and different kinds of bird Pokemon starting to nest. Maybe Marion wasn't that wrong. Maybe they wouldn't find the sleeping Ursaring if they were a couple of days late.

The girls eventually came to a cave, where some loud snoring could be heard. They concluded that was the Ursaring's sleeping site. Carefully, Karen sneaked inside the cave, carrying a torch, until she found the Ursaring she wanted so much. She gathered all her material and managed to make a magnificent drawing, even with such little light.

Fortunately, the mighty bear-like Pokemon didn't wake up, so Karen didn't have problems. When she got out and showed Marion her artwork, her friend stared at it with awe.

"Saint Celebi of Azalea, it's wonderful! You should really start an artist career!"

"You're just overreacting! It's just an Ursaring, not a big deal!"

"Not a big deal…" repeated Marion. She wouldn't go on with that fight, she knew it was no use discussing with Karen: she would always win the point.

But Karen didn't forget her friend's compliment and started thinking about Daniel again. She knew how proud he would be, knowing her best friend got that good at sketching. Gosh, why was she still thinking about him! He was gone, it was over. Probably, she would never see him again. But somehow, it just felt right remembering him… Maybe she was getting too involved in her Pokemon's romantic affairs.

All the silly thoughts came to an abrupt end when she found Rachel already waiting to take them home. _For God's sake, even my Pokemon is more aware of time than me!_, she thought.

"You're staying for dinner at my place, aren't you?" Karen asked.

"I would love to, if it's not too much trouble," the other girl answered.

"You're kidding, we can even plan our next trip! Since spring's coming, we have to sketch the Taillow and Swellow's arrival! You know, back in the real world, I truly loved to see the arrival of the swallows…"

"Then I think we have a deal," Marion asked. It seemed like Karen didn't lose her talkative nature after all. "I'll come over your place later. Still have to feed the Miltanks and change."

"It's fine by me! Later, Marion!"

"Later, Karen!"

And the two girls went separated ways. However, when Karen arrived home still with her mind full of Daniel, she saw all her Pokemon in great commotion, seeming eager for her arrival.

When she finally landed, she ran towards them.

"What's up, guys?" she asked, visibly worried.

"You've got to see this!" an excited Ross said. "It's fantastic! Come, let's head back to the beach! Hurry, we left Joey taking care of it, so it must be having a hard time!"

"Wait a second, _what_ is by the beach?" Karen asked, her heart starting to beat faster than normal.

"You don't want me to spoil the surprise, do ya?" Ross the Togetic asked with a grin.

With that, Karen took off running after her Pokemon, impatient to know what was lying along the beach…

**END OF CHAPTER**

He, he, another cliffhanger! And this chapter is pretty much longer than the previous ones, and much more fun to write too.

So, I hope you enjoyed it and the names I gave to every Pokemon. Some of you may have noticed, but they are named after the six main characters from my favourite series: Friends. I really L-O-V-E that series!

Also, Karen's Pokemon were the Pokemon I used in Pokemon Silver Version. Believe me, they may not be legendary like Articuno, Suicune or powerful like Dragonite or Gyarados, but if they are trained with trust and love (and this serves for everything in life), any Pokemon can become even mightier than the powerful Mewtwo (no kidding). For example, the miserable Magikarp will eventually become the dreadful Gyarados (fantastic, huh?).

I think there's nothing more else to say about this chapter.

Once again, I want to thank my reviewers, believe me, it's much more easier to write when we know our work is appreciated.

Well, I think it's enough for today! See ya next chapter!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	4. The Transformation

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Note: **Hi again! One more time, I want to thank my reviewers **BlackRainWillFall** (Friends is really amazing! Yeah, Phoebe and Joey do belong together! Don't worry, I'll try to change that with this fic ;)) and **gothshadowdragonofhell. **If you read this fic and loved it or even hated it, please review, I just want to be a better writer, so help me out! I'll be really happy with you! And, of course, if you have any question about this story, you're always welcome to e-mail me or to post the question in a review! Anyways, I spent too much time with this, on with the story!

**CHAPTER 4**

**THE TRANSFORMATION**

As you might still remember, previously, Daniel had found a beautiful children book, and what he found inside made his chin drop in awe. While flipping through the pages, the young man finally found what he had been searching for three years: a way to get to her missing best friend. In front of him, there was a map of the Pokemon World drawn on the pages of that book.

"It can't be!" Daniel screamed, while the librarian shushed him. But he didn't mind it.

With his hand starting to shake from the emotion, Daniel tried to read some of the directions of the map. Yes, it all made sense. Karen probably found that book too. Convinced that she was fulfilling her dream, she must have followed the book. Of course she didn't understand that it was just a child book, and believed that she was really finding the Pokemon World, so she was certainly lost. But she didn't have to worry no more. Daniel was on his way and would finally have the long awaited chance to apologize.

So, Daniel rushed to the librarian and requisitioned the same book, an excited look on his face. The librarian stared strangely at him. Maybe it was difficult for her to understand why was an 18-year-old boy so excited about a children's book.

"You know," she said, "you're not the first one to take this book. Some time ago, a girl came here and took it. We never saw her or the book again. I hope this story doesn't repeat itself…"

Daniel fought not to smile too widely, as his theories were confirmed before him.

"Don't worry, ma'am. I'll bring you the book soon," he said, winking.

I guess I forgot to mention that Daniel is a very optimist boy, as long as he sees the hope illuminating his way. But maybe what he said wasn't the truth…

"Water"

"Checked"

"Tent"

"Checked"

"Chocolate snacks?"

"Checked"

"Why do you need chocolate snacks, son?"

"You know, mom, chocolate makes me feel good! Imagine if I fall in a depression in the middle of the journey, huh?"

Daniel was at home; packing up for his great journey, but his mother wasn't much convinced of the utility of letting his son go.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Daniel? I mean, you looked for her everywhere! Do you really think you're going to find her this time?" she asked her son.

"Mom, I've already told this!" Daniel said, impatiently, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I **know** she used this book to run away, so logic says that if I go in the same direction, we are bounded to bump into each other eventually," he explained. His mother wasn't any calmer, though.

"Okay, I'll trust you, but promise me you'll be back home soon!"

"I promise." But he didn't have to. Daniel loved L.A.; he thought it was the greatest city of them all. Certainly he wouldn't bear to be away from Los Angeles too long.

His mother messed up with his hair, like all the mothers like to do, and kissed his son in the forehead as a good-bye.

"Have a pleasant trip, son".

"Stay fine without me, mom".

And, just like that, he left for the unknown.

Daniel made that entire journey with a silly smile on his face, full of hope, full of eagerness. With all the excitement, time seemed to go by pretty quickly, almost too quickly for Daniel to appreciate the scenery.

Just like what happened to Karen before, the journey was easy and fun, and there was no need for the chocolate snacks. Eventually, Daniel also reached the big oak-tree that represented the passage to the Pokemon World. But the young man was quite surprised. None of that existed. Why was there _actually_ a big oak-tree? And, to make him feel even more uneasy, there was a sort of aura around the tree, like it was _really_ a portal to another dimension.

Daniel couldn't believe it. Was the Pokemon World… real?

Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him that almost gave him a heart attack.

"Still don't believe it, huh? I thought you had learned the lesson when she left," a really old lady said. She looked quite wise, with her walking came by her side and the serious look on her wrinkled face.

"What do you mean, ma'am?" Daniel asked, confused.

"There's no point in apologizing to her, if you don't feel it inside," she went on.

"Oh, but I do feel it! I've been regretting the moment I said those words since I said them!" he retorted.

"But imagine if you find her, imagine if she forgives you and she comes back to this world (_What does she mean by that?_ Daniel thought). She won't stop believing; now she knows it exists. But if you still don't believe it, then another discussion will come some day, and you'll lose her forever".

"But the Pokemon World doesn't exist! She just thinks too much about it, she should grow up soon!"

"Then how to you explain the portal behind you?"

"It's not a portal; it's just a tree with lots of fireflies around it!"

"Alright, I see it's going to be difficult to convince you," the old lady said, taking a PokeBall off her belt and releasing the Pokemon inside. "Go, Slowking!"

After a beam of red light, a strange-looking creature, with a big shell on its head, serving as a crown, appeared. Stupefied, Daniel circled the amazing Pokemon, touching it, talking to it, confirming it was no mere illusion. He started believing, but he was scared: everything started to run away from plain logic. In a final proof, the Slowking used its Confusion attack, levitating Daniel from the floor for a moment.

"I think that'll do," the old lady concluded, calling the Slowking back to its PokeBall. "What are you going to do now, Daniel?"

_How does she know my name?_ the boy wondered.

"I'll apologize to her even more; I was a stupid dumb ass for not believing her. Sorry about the language…"

"Don't mind me. But you're right; you should be more considerate about your friend. She is very hurt because of you. She won't take your apologies that lightly. She might even ignore you. You must approach her from another way…"

"I don't care how; I just want to talk to her! I love her!"

That last part wasn't supposed to leave his mouth, but it was the truth, it was all clear now.

"I know that already, Daniel. That's why we'll have to make her love you back. She'll make a big mistake if she doesn't. So, I guess I already have a solution".

"Shoot it," Daniel requested, already scared of what could come from that strange lady.

"If you want to win her trust back, you must transform into her favourite Pokemon," she said, with a matter-of-factly tone. "That's the simplest way to do it".

"L-lugia? B-but how?" he asked, seeming now terrorised. "I mean, I'm a boy, not a Pokemon…"

"No worries, no worries. I've got just what you need, wait a moment".

The old lady opened a bag she carried with her and took a small flask from inside it. It contained a liquid as clear as water, but slightly shinning, which made Daniel gulp in horror.

"I'll have to drink that?" he asked.

"If you want Karen back in your life, yes," the old lady simply said while uncorking the flask. "You had better gulp it down, or you won't like the flavour that much," she advised the boy.

In a gesture of courage, Daniel emptied the flask in a gulp, just like the old lady had said. And she had been right; it was as if liquid fire had gone through his throat, instead of clear water.

Almost immediately, the young man felt changes in his body. He screamed out loud and saw as his already long arms stretching even more, getting whiter (more like a silver kind of white), his hands getting much bigger, to the point when he ripped his shirt off. A white tail with two purple spikes on the end sprouted from his pants, opening a hole there. His legs also changed. They got more curved and became as white as the tail or the freshly-appeared wings. They resembled the hind legs of a cat, but much shorter in comparison to the wings. His chest became ovoid, his white back adorned with five pairs of purple fins and his belly becoming purple. But the biggest transformation was in his head. His neck became white and as long as a giraffe's, but just like the animal, it made him much more elegant. His head also changed: it was different from everything you had ever seen (unless you had seen a Lugia before), but was as white as the rest of the body, had this strange purple fins protecting his eyes (which were still the same), had a big and beautiful mouth and had a strange horn that covered the start of its long neck. The change had been painful to Daniel, and it was frustrating not being able to see what he looked like. But by the look on the old lady's face, it seemed like everything had gone fine.

On the ground, still unable to fly and quite clumsy with his new abilities, Daniel didn't represent not even half of a _real_ Lugia's splendour. But everyone could see he was trying. The old lady came towards him and said:

"You're now ready, boy. Go on, enter the Pokemon World. Go find your friend. But be careful, if you get captured or the girl doesn't forgive you, you'll have to get used to that body, because you'll have it forever. You heard what I said?"

"Yes, ma'am," Daniel said, with a voice much different and rougher from his own. Surprisingly, he didn't have to open his mouth to speak. As Lugia was a psychic Pokemon, it could speak with its mind.

But before getting inside the big oak-tree's trunk, Daniel turned his beautiful head to the lady one last time.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but I never got the chance to know your name."

"It's Penelope! Now off you go, lad!"

Daniel dropped down to the tunnel and went through it just like Karen did. But when he got out, that will be a different story…

Seeing himself out of that dark and claustrophobic tunnel surely gave him another mood. Daniel headed to the lake to watch his reflection, trying to make sure he was _really_ a Lugia, and his test proved right. His appearance had changed so much that he doubted even his mother would recognize him (and his mother knew people by their eyes!).

_And now what?_ He asked himself. He stared at the sky above and it gave him an idea. Well, he was a Lugia after all. He could fly.

With that idea on his mind, Daniel stretched his 17-feet-long wings and used his cat-like legs to jump like… like a cat! When he was at the highest point of his jump, he started flapping his wings, but it didn't work and Daniel splashed in the lake. When he thought he was going to drown, he remembered that Lugias are excellent swimmers and started flapping his wings again. However, this time, his powerful wings were able to pull him up high away from the water level and he was able to fly at last.

The feeling was greater than anything was. Even though he hadn't any experience, Daniel's heart told him the exact move he had to perform next. He was still a lot clumsy, it would be very difficult to adapt to that new body, but Daniel was feeling wonderful. The wind rushing through his aerodynamic head, the adrenaline of the nose-dive pumping inside his veins. Everything inside him felt alive and breathing.

I couldn't keep all that joy for himself, so he opened his mouth and the most magnificent sound came out. It was a mixture of happiness and nostalgia, the weeping of the happiest sad heart, a song that only a beast as splendorous as Lugia could perform.

However, being so focused on his song, Daniel missed a big forest that was coming towards him too fast. Yes, Lugia is also one of the fastest flying Pokemon. He turned left in time to pass by a huge pine-tree (A/N: look familiar?) without taking it down, but he completely misled and made a terrible landing in a sandy beach nearby (A/N: NOW look familiar?). The last thing the gorgeous Pokemon saw was a blur that looked like a house not so far away before he passed out.

And that was when Karen's Pokemon noticed something by the beach and ran off calling her. As soon as Karen arrived to the spot where the Lugia was laying unconscious, her chin dropped in surprise and she ran to the hurt Pokemon.

"Oh my God, how did it get here?" she asked, lifting up its head a bit. She never thought she would ever see a Lugia, her favourite Pokemon, in her life, and now there she was, hugging one. Its touch was different from what she had imagined. Sure, there were feathers covering its body, but they were penguin-like feathers, which is quite logical, as Lugia needs slippery feathers to swim the best. However, the touch was still soft and Karen was melting inside just because of looking at it.

Then, finally waking up for her trance, she thought immediately of a plan.

"Joey, I want you to use Strength over here. We need to take it home. When Marion arrives, then we can find a way to help it."

Joey the Furret came by immediately and used Strength to lift up the huge Pokemon. But it seemed that one Pokemon wasn't enough.

"Guys, a little help over here!" he begged.

Chandler and Monica, the strongest, came to the rescue and the three of them were able to lift the entire Pokemon up and take it inside the house.

Karen reunited a great amount of cushions and improvised a mattress with them. Then, the three Pokemon laid Lugia there. Right then, the only thing Karen could do was to wait. Wait for Marion's arrival. Wait for that magnificent creature to wake up.

**END OF CHAPTER**

Hurray, the longest chapter up until now! And the most enjoyable to write too!

I hope you liked the way I described Daniel's personality and the transformation. I hope I didn't forget any detail, if I did, please tell me! I luvv Lugia!

About Slowking, I was divided between that Pokemon and Slaking, but then my sister said she preferred Slowking, so I put Slowking. I'm sorry to disappoint you, Slowking friends, but I think you'll never see that Slowking ever again!

I hope you liked the description of Daniel's first flight! I know it doesn't seem anything like Lugia, but it was just for fun. If you need more information about Lugia's song, you can always watch the movie Pokemon 200: Revelation Lugia (or The Power of One).

I know it seems strange to see a Furret using Strength, but back in Silver Version, I had a Furret and he had Surf, Strength, Dig and Cut for attacks. Believe me, Joey is quite a tough guy!

Lastly, P-L-E-A-S-E review! You've got so far, I know you're brave enough to click that button and post you're opinion! I'll be very happy with it and much more willing to write this fic!

Well, I had a nice day. I finally got a hold on Digimon 02, episode 13, His Master's Voice (which I was looking for four years ago) and my mum's celebrating her birthday tomorrow, which means _fiesta!_

Thanks to all my reviewers, one day I'll dedicate a poem to you all!

Well, I think it's time for me to shut up.

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	5. A Second Chance

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, they would still be filming it. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Note: **Once again, a new chapter! Sorry for the long wait, but I have been quite busy lately… (Or maybe I'm just getting too lazy). Anyway, I want to thank all my reviewers (again) **BlackRainWillFall** (I'm glad you're liking it! You gave me this idea! What if they still don't know about Karen's origins? Thanks a million!), **Forta** (Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, Kyogre may be the ultimate ocean guardian, but Lugia is still the cutest ˆˆ) and **Pyro Hiei's-gothshadowdragonofhell **(who is my most loyal reviewer). But keep reviewing! I'll be so happy if you do smiles hopefully! Well, I guess you've heard enough of me. On with the story!

**CHAPTER 5**

**A SECOND CHANCE**

Quite excitedly, the two girl friends watched the magnificent creature as its eyes started to open. But for their great surprise, the Lugia's eyes weren't blue or even violet as they should be. They were of the darkest of browns. Unexpectedly, that fact made Karen's heart skip a beat.

But Marion quickly got over her surprise as she leaned over the Pokemon to check if everything was fine. However, she was pushed from the chair by Joey the Furret who immediately got this daring smile and asked the Lugia with the flirtiest tone:

"How're you doin'?" (A/N: Joey from Friends did that all the time and I always burst out laughing!)

"Stop it!" Karen ordered, snapping out of her trance. "He's a _guy_, not a chick!"

Joey seemed embarrassed at the statement.

It was Karen's turn to lean over the Lugia.

"So, how are you doing?" she asked. Joey had a betrayed look across his face.

The Lugia got quite shocked when he saw Karen's face, as if he couldn't believe how he got there. It took him some time to find the words and start talking, or sending Karen his thoughts. But when he did, he was looking at Karen eagerly, as if he had never seen a human girl before, or for a long time.

"I'm fine, I guess, but my head hurts like hell!" the creature answered.

Karen smiled at the reply. She never expected to see a Lugia talking like a typical American boy. Nevertheless, that was something about that Pokemon that looked familiar…

"Oh, I suppose that it will stop with time. You know, you did have a bumpy landing back there. You just need to rest," the blond girl said.

Then, the Lugia just smiled before closing his eyes again. Instinctively, Karen covered that amazing Pokemon with the biggest blanket she had (even though it was still small when compared with the creature's size) and she caressed his slimy feathers for a last time before she, her Pokemon and Marion left the living room. But while the others were heading to the kitchen for dinner, Karen stayed a little behind and stared at the surprise fate brought her.

Those eyes, the way he spoke, even his brief smile reminded her of someone… Someone she had been thinking about a lot lately. Karen smiled at her sleeping favorite Pokemon while recalling all the moments she and Daniel had spent together in the past. Thinking about it made her heart weigh a lot and tears come to her eyes. _You have to get over him, Karen_, she told herself, _he was the one who betrayed you, you did the right thing, you followed your heart. _Still was difficult to have success and to not receive the prize, the proud smile he would always give her whenever she did something right. And though she had the best Pokemon friends in the world, she had never felt so lonely in her life. No one could read her mind like Daniel did.

"Karen, dinner's ready!" Rachel the Pidgeot called out, coming out of the kitchen.

The blond girl returned to Earth. "Yeah, I'm coming! Just a minute!"

And Karen forgot all the grief for a moment and had fun at dinner with her _new _friends.

Daniel slept for two days in a row after being completely healed from the disastrous first flight. He woke up at night, when everyone was still sleeping, and he couldn't remember where he was. Then, all the memories of the past three days came to him at once and his headache started again. However, despite being physically drained, he felt lucky. If landing in Karen's house (without flight abilities) on his first day at the Pokemon World wasn't a miracle, then what was? He couldn't believe it when he saw Karen's face in front of him, the same angel face he had fallen in love with. _Now, _he thought, _I just have to stay here, be a nice Lugia, win her trust back, so that we can return home._

But he still hadn't realized that things weren't that simple…

After planning his future days, Daniel thought that hitting the sack was a good idea, but he had slept so much that he was having trouble falling asleep. At least, until Phoebe the Wigglytuff's arrival.

She came from her bedroom upstairs for a midnight snack. But she stopped shuffling in the fridge when she noticed Daniel was already awake.

She headed towards him and spoke:

"Hi, I'm Phoebe! I was planning on sculpting a bush with your shape, but it seems like it wouldn't be an original idea anymore…"

Daniel didn't know how to reply to her, so he said nothing, pretending to have a great headache, which was partly true. But Phoebe went on!

"Unless you are a creature from outer space and you're just here on vacation! I always thought Lugias had come from Neptune, him being god of the sea and all! But let's stop talking about me! You look awful!"

"That's because I'm trying to sleep and I can't," he answered rudely, but after all, he needed to rest!

"Oh, I think I can help you that! After all, I'm a Wigglytuff!"

Daniel just wanted her to leave, but what he had to lose? Thank God, he had always had a great patience.

Phoebe started singing with the most relaxing tone Daniel had ever heard.

"_Smelly Meowth, smelly Meowth, what are they feeding you?_

_Smelly Meowth, smelly Meowth, it's not your fault!_

_They won't take you to the vet_

_You're obviously not their favorite pet_

_You may not be a bed of roses_

_For you're no friends with those who've noses_

_Smelly Meowth, smelly Meowth, it's not your fault!" _(A/N: recognize it?)

Phoebe's relaxing voice combined with the repetitive and monotone song made Daniel slowly feel his eyelids heavier and his eyes starting to close. He fell asleep in no time. Facing success, the singing Pokemon smiled to no one in particular and she too went to sleep after eating her longing snack. Maybe Joey was right… she was eating too much for her own good…

And the night went on with no more delays.

The next day, Daniel woke up to the noise coming from the kitchen, sign that everyone was already awake. The next thing he knew, Monica the Ampharos was right beside him.

"Hi, my name is Monica! It's nice to meet at last one Pokemon that was born a natural swimmer! Maybe you could give Chandler some lessons! Anyway, I brought you breakfast".

She was holding a plate with delicious-looking cookies. Their freshly-baked smell reminded Daniel how hungry one will be if one doesn't eat for two days. He motioned one of his huge hands to grab one cookie, but Monica stopped him. _Great reflexes, _the Lugia thought.

"Na, na, na! You can't eat in bed! You'll leave it full of crumbs! Here, come join us!"

Daniel made a great effort to get up, but, luckily, he found out that every limb on his body was safe and sound and moving around wasn't painful anymore. However, it would be difficult to move around Karen's place without breaking anything… Fortunately, there wasn't a door between the living room and the kitchen. Instead, there was a wide open space and he reached the kitchen easily.

When they saw who came in, all the Pokemon stared at Daniel with awe, as a Lugia was much more graceful standing than lying on a bed. But they greeted him happily.

"Good-morning, Lugia!" they all exclaimed in unison.

"Good-morning," Daniel answered rather gloomily as he headed towards Karen and sat by her side. The noise started again as all the Pokemon started talking with each other.

"I see you're feeling better today. Marion said you Lugias sleep a lot!" the beautiful girl said.

"Then I guess she is right," he replied nonchalantly while eating some of the cookies. Boy, they tasted good! He looked around and Monica was staring at him, smiling. Chandler, who was sitting beside him, said:

"She's waiting for your opinion about the cookies. She acts kind of crazy when it comes to cooking…"

Getting the point, Daniel said with a beautiful grin: "Hey, Monica, these cookies, they are amazing! If I knew how to cook, I'd ask you for the recipe!"

Everyone saw Monica blushing deeply while whispering a simple: "Thank you…"

And if there was any tension or awkwardness towards the freshly-come Pokemon before, it disappeared with that single line.

**END OF CHAPTER**

He, he, I guess I should change the category to Humor just because of this chapter!

Sorry for the long wait, but I must warn that I won't be able to update as regularly as I did with the first chapters because Easter Break is almost over and then I'll have school (9th grade last term. I'll have exams and global tests about all 7th, 8th and 9th grades!).

This chapter was meant to be much larger, but it became too big and I decided to split it in two.

As you may have noticed, Karen's Poke gang (thank you **BlackRainWillFall **for this expression) acts a lot like the original Friends. I hope you liked Phoebe's song (which was originally "Smelly Cat") and the whole idea of the Pokemon being curious about their new guest!

So, whatever your opinion is, or even if you don't have an opinion at all, please R-E-V-I-E-W! Even if you just review with a "I've read, keep writing!" I'll be very happy! And please, give me suggestions for the name of the evil guy!

Once again, if there's any error, please tell me, I'm trying to write better and better with time.

I hope I'm giving you a good time.

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	6. Another Whole New Life

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, they would still be filming it. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Note: **Hi, guys! Here's a new chapter! Once again, thanks to all my reviewers: **BlackRainWillFall **(I'm really happy that you like my story, thanks for all your reviews, you've been great too! It's so much fun to read this fic when you've been following Friends! I remember well when Rachel tried to make a Sheppard's Pie and used meat and peas with cream and jam! And I laughed so much when Joey was the only one who liked it! On this chapter, I'll try to act like Ross and Chandler! Keep reviewing!), **Lost Yoshi** (thanks for noticing the mistakes; I'm glad there are only two so far! About the villain, you're right; I should have given you more information about him. Now I can tell you he is the same Pokemon Collector that almost caught Lugia in Pokemon 2000: The Power of One, and even though he'll have his first appearance on this chapter, you can still name him if you want. If you hadn't seen the movie, I can tell you he's quite an erudite, he looks like a gentleman, he's more of the intellectual type and he must be around 30 years old. Thanks for your help though. About your questions, I can't tell you about Penelope yet, I would be spoiling the story. Just wait and you'll see! What you said about Lugia is completely right, but there are a couple of episodes when Ash is at the Orange Isles (or something like that…), when he found an adult female Lugia and her young son (even though Lugia can only be found on the bottom of the sea, just like in the game you mentioned, just like Pokemon 2000) and Lugias were very rare Pokemon, but were not unique like Mewtwo or Mew. I'm writing this story based on those episodes, believing that there are some Lugias around, so that it wouldn't be so strange to see a Lugia flying around clumsily. Think of it as if Daniel was transformed into a Dragonite instead. But I can see you're a great admirer of Lugia by your review… Well, that makes two of us! Now, it was difficult for Karen's Pokemon to bring Daniel into the house, but they managed to do it somehow. Don't forget that Rachel the Pidgeot also comes inside the house whenever she wants, and Pidgeot is a considerably big Pokemon. At last, as I'm writing according to the episodes I've mentioned, there is no "real" Lugia here, there's only one that's more powerful than the other (which will be mentioned on this chapter) and our Daniel can be easily mistaken by an adolescent Lugia that had lost his mother to some collector, as you'll see in the next chapters. But thanks for your great review, and I'm glad you're liking!) and **Bill Everyman** (I'm glad you're liking it!). I know it has been a while… Sorry… Now, on with the story!

**CHAPTER 6**

**ANOTHER WHOLE NEW LIFE**

On the same day, everyone at Karen's was still worried about Daniel's health, even though he had assured them that he was completely healed from his first flight. But, strangely, that fact seemed to make everybody sad and Daniel didn't know why.

However, the reason became clear when Karen and her Pokemon lead him outside after breakfast. They had this gloom look on their faces and they all started to hug him tightly. Confused, the Lugia hugged them back, but not without asking: "Hey, guys, what's going on? Are you hiding something from me? Are you telling that I'm fine when I'm dying slowly and painfully?"

"Good Lord, no!" they all exclaimed in unison. "It's just…" Karen answered, "You are fine now, and you're a Lugia, a legendary Pokemon. You should be free, not enclosed, not here". Daniel noticed tears on her eyes, but she hid them well.

"Oh, but I don't mind it!" he said, approaching the blond girl and wiping her tears away with his feathery nose. "I'm not what you can call a "normal" Pokemon. Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not that skilled as a Lugia, so I could use some help from you. What do you think?"

The group looked at each other before facing the magnificent creature and saying: "Then, you're welcome! We'll be happy to have you here!"

The whole Poke gang ran to the new "roomy" and circled him. Ross, who was sitting behind his long neck, said: "This will be great! We're going to give a Lugia some lessons! Anyway, what kind of Lugia are you? You're supposed to be one of the strongest Pokemon ever!"

"Well, Ross, you're also supposed to be one of the cutest Pokemon ever, but it turns out that you're flat out annoying," Chandler joked. Being him the leader of that party, he stood in front of Daniel and outstretched his right hand. "It's good to have you on the team!"

With a radiant smile, the Lugia also unfolded his right wing and shook the Typhlosion's hand vigorously. The other let out a painful groan and laughed: "You've got a good grip! No wonder why you have such ability in flying! Well, but I really wanted to talk about what you're doing here. Let's go for a walk?"

"Absolutely!"

"Well, as you can see, our backyard is quite large. We use it to train. Monica and me use the swimming pool to, well, swim! But I still have nightmares from when Karen threw me to the water the first time… I guess I've gotten better with time! Ross uses that karate thing to train both his psychic abilities and his physical strength. You must be careful with him, or he'll start lecturing you about your wrong walking position or when has the legend of Lugia first appeared. Oh, and not to mention his 'Unagi' thing."

"Unagi?" the confused Pokemon asked. "Isn't that a type of sushi?"

"Exactly!" Chandler exclaimed, a matter-of-factly tone within his voice. "But we'll deal with it later. Then, Rachel can help you with your flight abilities on her training area. Believe me, you won't see anyone better at flying than her! But be careful, don't trust her when she says her worm pie his good for your health! Of course, Joey will lend you a hand when it comes to the physical stuff, but never come to him when you need a bit of smart advice! The last time I did it, I ended losing one cute female Raichu… Of course that was before Monica!" he added, making clear he wouldn't jeopardize his love for Monica for nothing. "Finally, Phoebe will help you to relax whenever stress is killing you. She may seem you a little weird at times, but once you get to know her better, you'll see she's an amazing Pokemon. But never touch her guitar, or you'll suffer the consequences…" With that, Chandler rubbed his right ear gently, remembering the time he tried to play "Johnny B. Goode" on his friend's guitar.

"Well, I guess this is it," Chandler said, when the two beautiful Pokemon returned to the front door. "Now, you just have to see Karen and I think we can start training."

Daniel turned his head to the front door and he noticed Karen was already there, smiling gently at him. She walked towards him and after a long and elaborated bow, she said: "I can see Chandler has shown you the surroundings. I'm sorry I can't offer a Lugia more than this humble house… But I think you'd love to live up in the attic. We can build a small room together in a couple of days, if you may. Till then, you're welcome to sleep on the 'sofa' (A/N: she's referring to the mattress she made out of cushions!). Just tell the others or me if you need something. I guess I can leave you to your training now".

However, Phoebe the Wigglytuff raised and waved her arm franticly and yelled: "But, Karen, he doesn't have a name yet! He's a part of this family now, so you should name him!"

Karen brought a hand to her chin and stared thoughtfully at Daniel.

"Yeah, I guess you're right… Any suggestions?" she asked.

"Hey, I know one cool name!" Joey screamed. "Since he's a sea creature, we could name him Ariel!"

"Right, than we can change your name to Flounder and we can shoot 'The Little Mermaid III – The Pokemon Version of Ariel's Story'!" Chandler said sarcastically.

"No, that wouldn't work… Flounder is supposed to be a fish…" Joey answered dumbly, not noticing the mock in Chandler's words.

The Typhlosion merely rolled his eyes.

Karen just looked deeper inside the Lugia's eyes. "No, I think I just have the right name for him. He reminds me of a friend I knew long ago, before I had you… He had the same brown eyes and almost the same personality this Lugia has. He was sun tanned all year round and was the best friend I had…"

Daniel's heart skipped a beat. So Karen still thought about him after so much time…

"So you lived in Ecruteak, I've heard people there can go to the beach all year round too!" Rachel said.

"No, he was from much farther…"

"From Hoenn, I see," Rachel continued.

But Karen hadn't listened to her. She caressed the Lugia's chin gently and said dreamily: "He's going to be named Daniel, just like that friend of mine…"

And Daniel couldn't fight back a smile, because he knew he had a chance after all… She gave him his name, his _real_ name…

"So Daniel it is!" he said, finding back his psychic voice. "I like it!"

"I'm glad you do!" Karen answered. "Now, you should begin today's training! Daniel, today you'll train with Monica, Rachel and Ross. The rest of you, I'll need your help to start building Daniel's room! Let's go!"

And all the Pokemon left for their chores.

As he was folding through the pages of an old book called "The Wonders of the Legendary Pokemon", the eccentric Pokemon collector recalled his last failed attempt to catch the Three Legendary Birds and the Sea Guardian (A/N: for more information, look into Pokemon 2000: The Power of One). He knew there were some Lugias still wondering around the Pokemon World, but he also knew that that was the most powerful of them all and that he would be praised above all Pokemon collectors if he showed up at their reunion with it.

However, he knew too that he had lost his chance to catch it a long time ago and, as the reunion wasn't that far away, he needed to find a regular Lugia to take its place instead. That was the reason why he was searching there, in the middle of the sea, with his rebuilt and updated airship (A/N: remember the one that was destroyed at the film? This is quite alike it). So far, he hadn't been lucky. But his luck quickly changed.

"Sir, we have detected the presence of an almost adult Lugia nearby," a woman's voice said, coming out of the loudspeaker. "Shall I gather more information?"

"Certainly," the collector said with a smile. "Finally things are sorting out…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

Puff, I thought this chapter would never end! Even though it is so short… I'm sorry… TT

Anyway, I hope you liked it, and that I'm giving you a good time.

As you can see, I've introduced the villain on this chapter, and I'd appreciate if **Lost Yoshi** could come to my aid again and suggest a name (I know you would never be like Joey and propose Ariel!).

Remember when I said this story wouldn't be longer than 10 chapters? Well, forget it. I guess I didn't plan chapters would be this long… But don't worry, I'll try to update as regularly as I'm now.

I think I have nothing more to say… Please R-E-V-I-E-W, it's not that difficult!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	7. I Can Fly!

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, Ross would keep his monkey Marcel. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Note: **Hi again! I hope you didn't have to wait much for this chapter! As I always do, I want to thank my reviewers **Lost Yoshi **(what Chandler meant was to tell him what he was supposed to do the following days, like training, so I guess it should be "I really wanted to talk about what YOU'RE GOING TO DO here". I'm sorry about it and thank you for correcting it. Of course Karen still has a small grudge against Daniel! He let her down when she most needed him! But their friendship was beyond of what you think, they had grown up together, they were like Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, Takeru and Hikari, so she cared about him more than she hated him. Since Lugia is such a special Pokemon, she wanted to give him a special name, and she found similarities between this Pokemon and her best friend, so I can't see what's the problem with that. About your third question, I believe that if you raise well a Pokemon, you'll be linked by a special bond and amazing things can happen. If Meowth was able to learn to speak in the name of love, than Karen's Pokemon can learn to speak too in the name of a powerful friendship. Daniel knew his friend well, he knew she thinks like me and he knew that if Karen got a Pokemon, they would probably end up being so close they would speak the same language, which happened. Thanks for correcting the mistake about the young Lugia, I noticed it didn't sound that good, but I couldn't come up with something better. My fault. I wanted to give the villain his real name, but I thought they never named him in the movie. Thanks for telling me his name and thanks for your review!), **BlackRainWillFall **(I'm glad you like this story, and your reviews really made me happy lately! I feel great knowing that at least someone really likes what I'm writing! I should name a character after you… I think my next Pokemon fic will be about a Charizard, and I can give your name to his best friend if you want! Oh, Ross's second marriage! I loved that episode, but I was seeing that coming! Now, I haven't seen all the episodes yet (here in Portugal, they're still showing the eighth season) and I laugh like crazy in all the episodes, but some of my favourites have to be the one with Ross's sofa (the one that got destroyed in the end), the one where Joey had to wear these weird blue braces and Chandler got a girlfriend that screamed in her sleep (specially the last part of that episode), the one when Rachel and Ross got so drunk they got married, the one when Ross had this funny British accent and the one with the Unagi thing. But I could ramble about Friends for hours and hours! If you want to talk about it, you can always e-mail me to paulamoura3sapo.pt, and I won't shut up for a while! Thanks for your reviews!), **GoBulbasaur **(I'm glad you like it, thanks for correcting the mistake, but I always thought the Pokemon World was on Earth too…) and **Foxyjosh **(yes, Vulpix are really cute and the Pokemon World does have its wonders! I'd rather stay there too. Maybe Daniel's mind will change with time, too… I'm glad you like it!). The ones who got this far, keep reading, keep reviewing, and make me a happier person! Thanks for your time. On with the story!

**CHAPTER 7**

**I CAN FLY!**

As Joey, Phoebe and Chandler went with Karen to start building Daniel's new home, the Lugia and the others went to the backyard. There, Chandler said: "Well, we can't give you our lessons at the same time, so you'll have to choose which one of us you want to train with first. The rest of us will be waiting then."

Daniel looked from Rachel to Chandler and from Chandler to Ross. According to Chandler, Ross wasn't much of a teacher and was quite boring when it came to lessons, so Daniel decided he would be last. Then, he faced Chandler and remembered he would help him with the swimming part. But the Lugia was still a bit scared of his last interaction with the element. Therefore, Daniel thought it would be best to start with Rachel and learn to fly as soon as possible.

"I had better get used to my wings first. I mean, what's a Lugia without its flight? I'll come to you next, guys," he said.

"Yeah, I'd too rather learn to fly with Rachel than learn to drown with Chandler," Ross retorted sarcastically.

"Well, at least, I'm not teaching him to be more aware with screams of 'DANGER! DANGER!'!" the Typhlosion answered.

And Ross had no answer for that, so he just sent his partner an evil look. Rachel whispered to Daniel's ear: "Don't worry, they're at this all the time, but deep inside they really care about each other. You know, it was Chandler's fire when he was a Cyndaquil that made Ross's egg hatch. Since then, they developed a very special friendship. Shall we go now?"

"Yeah, I think so…"

And the two flying Pokemon went away, leaving the two brotherly friends behind.

Daniel got fascinated with Rachel's training zone: every perch, every obstacle and every wide open space caught his attention. He needed to focus a lot to keep his mind on the Pidgeot's speech, who was standing on a perch opposite from him.

"Right, first of all, I need to make sure you know what it takes to fly…" Rachel started.

"A pair of wings?" Daniel hesitated.

"Of course, but that isn't all. You also need an aerodynamic body, something serving you as a helm and the ability to work with it all without a mistake. It was a great evolutionary step when Pokemon learned to fly and it still isn't that easy. Sure it takes a lot to fly, but the emotions you feel and the utility it has make it worth it. So, to start your first lesson, I want to know what your mother has thought you till now."

Daniel found himself in trouble. He wasn't too fond of lying to his new friends, but he had no other choice, so he turned his head away from Rachel and answered: "Huh, I never got the chance to learn much from my mother…"

"But that's strange… How did you manage to survive all this time and why do you need lessons if you did survive?"

More difficult questions… "Well, that's a long story… Let's just say that I always lived on dry land and now I think it's time to become a Lugia like the others and fly and swim, and that was what I was trying to do when I got here…"

Rachel wasn't much convinced with the answer, but she could tell it was hard to survive without one's mother as she was caught as a little Pidgey and learned everything she knew with Karen. "Okay, honey, if you don't want to talk about it, I'll just start from the beginning. Wings are the most important thing in a flying creature. It's the type of your wings that will define the way your flight looks like. Curiously, your wings are adaptable, and you can position them in many ways. Like that, you can glide, you can fly really fast and you can nosedive fast too. It's my job to tell you when it's best for you to use any of the flights I mentioned before and how can you use them. But first you'll have to learn how to take off properly. Besides, before you can fly, you must first get off the ground. I want you to flap your wings quickly".

Daniel did as the other said, but the result wasn't that good… Sure his body hovered some inches from the ground, but he couldn't get higher and the wing-flapping was exhausting. He soon gave up and landed with a great smash on his back. Rachel tried her best not to laugh. Did she look that dumb when she was learning to fly? She came to the ground next to him and helped him out with her feathery head.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'll be fine, I just fell…" he answered, a bit embarrassed.

"Don't worry, it was quite good for your first try! And I'm sorry about something. I forgot to tell that you Lugias need much more thrust to take off than what we Pidgeots need. Since you can't run, try to jump with your hind legs. That should do the trick."

Daniel remembered he did that to fly for the first time, so he followed her advice. This time, he just made sure he wasn't anywhere near water. Then, he jumped and flapped his wings madly. He got a bit higher than before, but he got tired from the effort again and eventually stopped flapping his wings. However, as his wings were completely outstretched, he glided slowly to the floor, allowing him to rest a bit. From bellow, Rachel yelled: "Now flap your wings again! Get a bit higher!"

He flapped his wings again, but this time it was much easier and he got much higher. He repeated the process several times and started flying around the training zone in circles, as the other Pokemon stared at him from bellow. He got so high he couldn't see their reaction, but he could feel the same joy from before inside him and, once again, he let it all out with his magnificent song.

Rachel joined him immediately, praising his instinctive abilities, and showing him the different types of flight he could perform.

"First, let's try to glide. I know you can do it quite well, but you must learn how to do it longer, just in case you need to stay up in the air for some time and need to save as much energy as possible. I want you to stretch your wings completely and open your hands the most possible. This will increase the air resistance and you can float better that way. Now, let's find a place with good upwelling spots. This way you don't need to flap your wings to stay in the air. Try it out!"

The Lugia did it and flew higher to find that good spot Rachel mentioned. He was so high he could see the whole forest, Marion's village and the entire extension of the sea around him. Some time later, the Pidgeot leveled with him and said, already panting from the effort: "Uff, they say we Pidgeots can fly high, but I'm sure they've never seen a Lugia flying! You're doing pretty well, honey! I think it's time to show you how to nosedive!"

Now, Daniel had been eager to do that since he became a Lugia, but he was afraid he made a mistake. This time, he would fulfill his dream…

"You just need to fold your wings back, turn upside down and let gravity pull you down! And, of course, enjoy it!"

And he did enjoy it! He dived so fast that he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, his heart thumped so fast he thought he would die of a heart attack right then. And he still wanted it to last forever.

However, good things don't last much, and Daniel found himself too close to the ground too quickly. He was about to panic when he remembered to open his wings widely, making a parachute-like effect. Then, with the remaining energy of the nosedive, the amateur Lugia flew really fast, close to the tree's tips, and singed again. This time, Rachel took more time to catch up with him.

"Honestly, I can't tell who's teaching who anymore…" she said. "I think there's nothing more to teach you! As long as you train everyday, you'll be perfect in no time! I'm just a bit jealous of you, but after all, you're a Lugia…"

Daniel just smiled and flew towards Karen's house to land safely. He even got perfect at that! Rachel said goodbye with a wave of her right wing and the Lugia left for his swimming lesson with Chandler. THAT should be interesting…

**END OF CHAPTER**

Ta-dah! Another chapter finished, more fun time spent! This chapter was actually quite easy to write, since I've been quite happy lately (thank you, dear reviewers).

I hope you enjoyed reading it and I'm counting with your dear reviews! This time, I'm sorry I didn't put much of "Friends-ness" in Rachel, but I promise, **BlackRainWillFall**, that she'll cause some of her usual troubles!

In case you're wondering, I love to describe all Lugia's flights because I'm most fond of flying creatures, especially golden-eagles, and being a bird lover, it's quite fun for me to write about Lugias flying (oh, how I wished I could fly too…).

I think there's nothing more to say about it… Please, review and see ya next chapter! And while you're waiting for it, check out my other fic!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	8. The Swimming Lesson

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, Frank and Alice's triplets would have appeared more often. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Note: **Howdy! I can tell I'm very happy with how this fic his turning out! I never imagined having so many reviews this soon (22, the last time I've checked)! I want to thank so to **HaloEver **(I'm glad you like it and I'm sorry for keeping you waiting so much!), **BlackRainWillFall** (You made me feel great, I made you feel great, so we're even. I hope you received my e-mail concerning your participation in this story. But if you want to be the Feraligatr here, you can also be the Charizard's best friend on my next fic. Sorry, but Karen won't face another trainer besides the Pokemon Collector. Keep reviewing, and thanks a lot for everything!) and **Lost Yoshi **(I'm glad you think so, thank you very much!). But this fic isn't over, so I want you, dear reviewers, to go on with your excellent job! Thanks a lot! Now, on with the story!

**CHAPTER 8**

**THE SWIMMING LESSON**

After his flying class with Rachel, Daniel took his chance to fly a bit more to Chandler's swimming pool. He was a bit scared of what he was about to do, but he knew Lugias were natural born swimmers, so there wouldn't be any problem.

When he finally landed, the Typhlosion came to him. He looked annoyed and asked: "What took you so long? Did Rachel start gossiping about me and Monica?"

Daniel made a face and replied: "No!"

"Good, because we weren't holding hands by the beach yesterday!"

"Okay…" was Daniel's only answering to that. "Shouldn't we be starting?" he said.

"Of course, but I have to tell you some things before you can get inside there. First of all, you must not tease your teacher! He is just a fire Pokemon trying to be better than the legendary Lugia, so try to make me look good in front of Monica!" he whispered that last part. "Second, on this first lesson, water can scare you like hell and you may have nightmares about huge tsunamis for some time, but once you get used to it, you won't worry about it anymore, just like me!"

However, the moment he said that, a big wooden board fell from the roof and landed on the swimming pool with a great splash. At the sound of that, poor Chandler screamed like a girl and ran to hide behind Daniel, who seemed little surprised. After all, Chandler _was_ a fire Pokemon.

"Joey, how many times I have to tell you not to use too much Strength when there are cute female Pokemon passing by?" Monica's screaming voice was heard from the roof.

The next moment, the attractive Ampharos was staring below, followed by Phoebe the Wigglytuff.

"Is it everything alright down there?" Monica asked.

"Of course not!" Phoebe yelled. "Can't you see Daniel has a bump on his head? Did it hit hard?"

All the Pokemon stared at the horn-like bump on the Lugia's head and then stared speechlessly at the pink Pokemon.

"Phoebe, Daniel had always had that," Chandler informed nonchalantly.

She just blushed in embarrassment and answered: "Oh, I knew that. I was just seeing if you were completely aware of everything! DANGER! DANGER!"

Ross, from the other side of the backyard, yelled: "Hey, I heard that!"

"Very well, Ross! Do you want me to give you a prize?" the Wigglytuff said sarcastically.

The other's answer took a while to come. "Maybe…" he said dumbly.

But Monica, who had had it with all, asked Chandler: "Anyway, you're sure you're okay, Chandler? You seem a bit pale."

The Typhlosion blushed.

"I'm fine, I was just caught in surprise… You can go now".

"Right," Monica replied, while heading back to the working site. "But something bad will happen when I put my hands on Joey!"

The last thing Daniel and Chandler heard from them was Phoebe shouting: "Hey, don't dare to mess up with Joey or you'll mess up with me too!"

And the fire Pokemon restarted talking.

"Well, after this rather embarrassing interruption, I guess we can go on with our lesson. Where were we? ... Oh yes, third. If you feel like drowning, don't stop moving. Try to flap your wings like crazy and you're most likely to save yourself and…"

"Lugias don't drown. Most of them live their entire lives underwater."

"Hey, you're breaking rule number one, you're teasing the teacher! Enough talking, let's go to the pool. Come with me."

Daniel followed the leader and went to the edge of the swimming pool, facing down the crystal-clear water. He gulped and heard the other attentively.

"You see, swimming is a lot like flying, but a lot easier. Look at it as if it was flying in something more solid. But you won't feel so tired and your body will move in a different way. You know why you have that special shape?"

"To be perfect in both flying and swimming," Daniel answered.

"Exactly. You were created by nature with a both aerodynamic and hydrodynamic shape. The shape of your nose, the size of your wings, the design of your legs, the movable fins on your back, your long tail. They will all help you in swimming. Your swimming is relatively better than the other Pokemon's swimming because you can give it some energy from the flight. For instance, you can dive from the air, and that's something only few Pokemon can do. So, here's the drill: I want you to fly high in the sky. Don't ask me how, you just had a flying lesson! Then, just nosedive to the water, with your wings ONLY half open, and make sure your head enters the water first. When you're completely underwater, you can thrust your swimming with your wings by closing them completely and keeping them close to your body. Finally, just keep swimming (A/N: I love this sentence!) by undulating your body like a mermaid and by keeping your wings completely closed against your body. Your eyes will let you see perfectly underwater, even in the depths of the ocean. Use your tail to change your direction. If you want to swim faster, just lower your back fins and enjoy! Understood?"

"I guess…"

"We'll see it now… Go on, then! I'll watch you from here. Still recovering from before…" the Typhlosion whispered.

Daniel understood and tried to remember all the steps before completing his task. So, he took off flying and circled the huge swimming pool once. Afterwards, he nosedived, just like Chandler had said, and entered the water with his head first. He felt relieved knowing he could breathe perfectly down there. And he could see perfectly down there too! He brought his wings close to his body rashly and that gave his swim energy, making him undulate like the mermaid mentioned before. Then, he found out that swimming was _really_ quite flying, and he discovered he also liked that feeling!

So, there he was, swimming and enjoying that moment, when Chandler noticed something wrong from the surface: Daniel was about to collide with the swimming pool's edge!

"Hey, watch out!"

But the young Lugia seemed to have everything under control. His heart told him exactly what to do when he heard the other's voice from far away… He opened his wings quickly and started spinning even faster towards the surface. Well, the energy he deposited on that movement was so great that when he hit the surface, a whirlpool was formed around him. The other Pokemon were staring at it speechlessly, like it had been the most beautiful thing they had seen in their lives. They actually felt wonderful inside their hearts when Daniel started singing that typical song…

However, the gigantic whirlpool hit a passing female Fearow and Joey the Furret knew it was time for action!

"Here I go! Surf!"

The handsome Pokemon grabbed a surfing board from nowhere and climbed up the whirlpool on it. The move was very effective and he caught the falling Pokemon just in time. Daniel chose that moment to stop his water vortex but, fortunately, the heroic Furret and his damsel in distress fell comfortably on the Lugia's neck. The Lugia used the moment to land perfectly and let Joey use his happy moment.

The Furret looked the Fearow in her eyes and asked: "You okay?"

The flying Pokemon seemed taken aback from that intense moment, so she just stared at her hero and replied: "I think so…"

"Good," Joey said. Then he put a silly smile on his face and asked: "How're you doin'?"

However, Chandler, who ran to Daniel with an ecstatic expression on his face, interrupted him.

"That was fantastic! You actually did a _full_ sized Whirlpool! And only on your first class!"

"I told you he was a fast learner…" Rachel said.

Daniel felt very happy, but not as happy as he felt when Karen came to him from the roof. He literally stopped thinking as she approached.

"Chandler's right, you did great! I hope your other classes go on like this too! That Whirlpool was amazing!"

"Yeah, but we'll see if he has that important thing I like to call 'Unagi'!" Ross said from behind the Lugia.

"Oh, Ross, you don't have 'Worm Pie' either, so why are you talking about it?" Rachel asked.

"It's _Unagi_, Rachel, and what I did when you yelled savagely at me and I started screaming was an ancient technique called…"

"Yeah, yeah, you like sushi and I like worm pie, everyone has its tastes! I think Karen's trying to say something."

And all the attention turned to the Pokemon trainer again.

"Well, I just want to wish you good luck… Your room will be ready tomorrow!" she informed.

"Thank you, that's great!" Daniel praised.

But Karen just blushed and left with a smile. Why was she behaving like this because of a Lugia? Sure it was her favorite Pokemon, but why was he making her feel the way she felt whenever Daniel looked at her?

However, back to the Lugia, the others started leaving too, wishing him luck for his next lesson as they left. Only Chandler remained.

"Well, I don't want to make you late to Ross's lesson. I wish you luck too, Ross can be really hard to handle… I guess I'll see you at dinner?"

"Yeah, thanks for all your support!" Daniel said, while leaving too. "Hey, and if you want Rachel to stop gossiping about you and Monica, you shouldn't run away with her at the middle of the night to the backyard. The stairs aren't exactly sound-proof".

The Typhlosion just blushed deeply and waved the other goodbye. With a smile, Daniel motioned for his next lesson, the last one of the day. What would have Ross prepared for him?

**END OF CHAPTER**

He, he, chapter eight concluded, finally! Do you believe I actually had to re-watch Pokemon the Movie 2000 to write that swimming part well? I hope it turned out well…

However, I'm sorry for the long wait, but school had been mad and all I do his studying, studying, studying… But I promise I'll try to update as soon as possible!

Well, I hope you enjoy the Friends parts and this chapter!

Please, REVIEW! And wish me luck for this month!

Check out my other fics… See ya next chapter!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	9. Unagi, Karate and The Red Ross

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, Joey would never die on "Days of our lives". Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Notes: **First, I'm so SORRY for the late update, but May (and, unexpectedly, June) has been exhausting and I had loads of exams and global tests and you name what more! I even had to say good-bye to my best friends yesterday because it's the end of the school year… Oh, I'll miss them so much… I might never see some of them again…

So, I guess this is an excuse good enough to keep you guys waiting… Please, be comprehensive!

Second, I really want to thank my reviewers for their amazing job! **BlackRainWillFall **(I'm so glad you liked it, it wasn't that easy to write that chapter! Romantic moments will come, but only later! Just wait and you'll see! So, you'll be my Feraligatr… Good. I sent you an e-mail some time ago, but I had no answer from you… I hope hearing from you soon!), **HaloEver **(yeah, sometimes it would be great if classes were fun… oh, well… I'm glad you're liking it! Just wait for the fighting class!), **Lost Yoshi **(Thanks a lot for your review! And also thank you for correcting my mistakes! Yes, it was a REALLY big pool. Maybe I made it too big… Lol… I'm sorry but we're only going back to Lawrence later. But don't worry! You won't need to wait that much time… (I think…)) and **DJ GF **(Lool, you're right, and I'm sorry! But most of my best friends are boys and they sometimes act like that… But I'll avoid those from now on, don't worry! I understand, I feel exactly the same! I like Pokemon, but I'm not a fanatic. But the truth is that we can learn a lot from Pokemon, specially because they are very similar to animals and most of them behave just like the original animal (well, my dream is to be a biologist, that's why I pay attention to that !). I'm glad I got a new reader!).

Third, carry on with your amazing job, dear reviewers! I'll take no more of your precious time! On with the story! (06/11/2006)

**CHAPTER 9**

**UNAGI, KARATE AND THE RED ROSS**

While heading towards Ross's training site, Daniel's heart wasn't in his chest, where it should be, but up his throat. He had heard Ross was the most demanding "teacher" there and he never had any actual fighting classes, so he was afraid to fail. But on the other hand, he never thought he could do such a beautiful whirlpool and he did it, even by instinct.

So, when he finally reached the place, he was nervous like hell, but he trusted his new acquired abilities. Even when he saw how furious Ross looked.

"You're late," he stated. "How come you want to be the best if you come late!"

Daniel tried to explain, but the Togetic interrupted him.

"Never mind. We have work to do till dinner and we won't do it if we keep this rate. Come with me."

The teen Lugia followed his teacher to a perch similar to the ones on Rachel's training site, but since Ross was much smaller than the Pidgeot, the perch was too small for the big Pokemon and he tried his best to keep balance. For that matter, he opened his wings widely. Ross seemed surprised in a good way.

"Very well, that's our first lesson: how to keep balance. And you seem to be doing it great. But this is just the beginning and I don't expect you to achieve my level of expertise just on your first lesson…"

Daniel just did the correspondent to raise his eyebrows in a Lugia's body (as Lugias don't have eyebrows).

"Carrying on, since you're that good at keeping balance, we'll move to lesson two: full focus, to be aware of everything around you, or in just one word, 'Unagi'… Do you think you have what it takes to carry on with this lesson?"

Ross the Togetic used his scariest tone of voice to ask that question. And it seemed to work for Daniel…

"I-I g-guess…" he shyly answered.

"We'll know about that now…" the other said, while turning his back to Daniel with a sly smile on his face. The young Lugia felt terrified. What was he doing? What training object would he grab from the floor?

But it turned out he wasn't doing anything mentioned before. To Daniel's great surprise, Ross just turned back to the Lugia rashly and started screaming aloud "DANGER! DANGER!". Well, the poor creature was terribly scared with the "teacher" (A/N: sometimes, the smallest ones can be the scariest… experience speaking!) so his fear responded quicker than he did… Before he knew, he lost balance, his tail hit Ross across his chest and both fell roundly on the floor with an enormous blast… Laughter was heard from far away, feminine laughter in fact! The two Pokemon, teacher and student, raised slowly, their whole bodies aching from the impact.

"I can't believe it!" Rachel said, while laughing and landing on a tree nearby. "The boy has 'Worm Pie' and you don't! The saying tells that it must come the time when the student overcomes the teacher, but this must be a record!"

"Laugh all you want, Rachel, that wasn't '_Unagi'_. It was just pure luck…" Ross retorted, putting himself together. "For one to have 'Unagi', one must have a life of meditation and focus, like me. He just reacted with fear, that's all."

But Rachel didn't give up.

"If you're so sure of that, why won't you test Daniel again?"

Ross didn't like the way the conversation was going, and neither did Daniel. The young Lugia, who had just climbed back to the perch, didn't like his first impression with Unagi and was willing to agree that it had been just luck. But he was actually enjoying that feeling of being able to do ex-impossible things… So he let Ross decide…

To the Togetic, the choice was much easier. He couldn't give up, not only because he had to prove his reason but also because Rachel was pissing him off… He answered: "That's exactly what I had in mind!"

What Ross did next was quite unexpected to Daniel. The Togetic tried to hit the Lugia with several karate techniques, but somehow, Daniel dodged them all. While they were on that fighting, Rachel said: "Pardon Ross's rudeness, Daniel. This is the third lesson already: your karate lesson. As Ross his too busy to be the teacher, I'll tell you some things you must know. Focus on you opponent's expression, free your body and use your psychic powers to help you!"

But that infuriated Ross even more.

"You're completely wrong, Rachel! He must focus on his opponent's **moves**, free his **spirit**, and you can't tell him to use his powers! That would be cheating!"

"Oh, right! It looks like he doesn't need any of that to win!" Rachel said sarcastically.

Ross's moves became more sudden and better, but Daniel was still able to dodge them. He could see Ross was a good fighter, but he was better. He stopped his kicks, punches and even stopped his huge tackle with his big belly. But the Togetic grew angrier and angrier at each failure and Daniel watched him turn redder and redder by the minute. Rachel was now laughing so hard she almost couldn't breathe.

"This is too much for me! He's transforming into 'The Red Ross'!"

Daniel felt confused, so he asked after blocking a strong spinning kick: "What's 'The Red Ross'?"

"He becomes 'The Red Ross' when he gets really mad, and then he will just start screaming, blushing and fighting till he gets calm".

"Is there anything I can do?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, pray to the mighty Ho-oh to let you live through this one and keep fighting. You couldn't wish for a better 'Unagi' and karate training class…"

And, after that, the Pidgeot just resumed her laughter. Ross, who was redder than he had ever seen him, faced him and spoke with a terrible voice: "Now, I'll show you he doesn't have 'Unagi'…"

But he made the greatest mistake a Pokemon could do while fighting with a Lugia: he took the battle to the air.

It was true Ross flew really well. Actually, there were hardly many Togetics that could fly that long. But he was facing a Lugia, one of the most powerful Pokemon in the whole Kanto, Jotho and Hoenn, and his rage made him blind to small details. Ross was already doomed in the moment he started that battle, and both Daniel and Rachel knew it perfectly (maybe that was why she was laughing so hard).

But neither of them backed down. They kept soaring in midair. Ross stared angrily at Daniel. Daniel stared scarily at Ross. The Togetic started to scream much like Tarzan and flew towards the Lugia in a rather Superman-like way. No one really understood what happened next. The truth was that Rachel almost died of laughter when she saw Ross struggling to free from Daniel's tight embrace while screaming: "This is completely unfair! AHHH! AHHHH!"

The next thing they knew, Daniel sprayed a humongous stream of water to Ross's face and Rachel fell from the branch, not taking anymore. The small Pokemon slowly calmed down and turned white again and the young Lugia slowly headed towards the ground, leaving Ross on his perch. Rachel came to the two males afterwards and joked with Ross: "So that was that ancient technique you mentioned before? I'm sorry, but it didn't seem that effective!"

"Leave me alone, Rachel!" he yelled. The other just giggled lowly. Then, the Togetic turned dully to Daniel. "I'm sorry to act like that… I guess you DO have 'Unagi'… You were the best student I had and I just yelled and attacked you… I hope you forgive me…"

"Oh, come on! It was a great class! And I learned a lot too!" Daniel said.

"You see, Daniel," Rachel started, "Ross can be brutal some times, but deep down he's just a sweetheart…"

"Shut up, Rachel…" Ross retorted shyly, blushing again, this time in shades of pink. It seemed like Karen was right after all. Rachel and Ross really cared for each other. Daniel felt somewhat sad, though. He had already lived that feeling, but he threw it away completely… Now he only wished for a second chance…

Anyway, it was already dinnertime, and Monica had already called them to eat her famous English Meat Pie. Before they entered the kitchen, Rachel just commented: "I once tried to cook an English Meat Pie, and I used jam as an ingredient. Strangely, only Joey liked it… I wonder if it was something I did…"

Daniel just smiled to himself. His first day in the Pokemon World had been fantastic, and that was just the perfect happy ending.

**END OF CHAPTER**

Wee, it took me one day to write this!

Once again, sorry for the late update and I hope this chapter made up the wait! Please, read and review, and while you're waiting, it doesn't hurt much to check my other fics!

Anyway, in the next chapter, our romance will start to develop and our Karen will start to see the human behind the Lugia…

I promise I'll update more often from now! Thank you, my dear readers and reviewers!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	10. Adaptations

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, Rosita would have been presented to us earlier. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Notes: **I promised a quicker update, and here it is! And I hope this will make up from the last chapter, as I wasn't at my best (I can't believe the greatest year of my life has just passed…). Thank you **Lost Yoshi **(oh, this will be long… I mustn't be wrong when I say you don't care much about 'Friends', do I? Well, maybe it was a mistake of mine to put its characters in this fic… Anyway, 'Unagi' is actually a kind of sushi made from eels, but according to Ross, who is keen on karate, fighting techniques and everything that requires effort and great focus, you have 'Unagi' when you're totally aware of EVERYTHING that happens around you. That means that you will never be startled by anyone and you have great reflexes. You may have noticed Ross mentioning that Rachel yelled savagely 'DANGER! DANGER!' at him on this fic. Well, that part actually appeared on one 'Friends' episode because Ross (from Friends) used to yell 'DANGER! DANGER!' to see if one had Unagi. But when Rachel once hid behind his curtains and yelled at him, Ross just screamed like a girl (no kidding) and it was proved that Ross hadn't Unagi either. That's why I used that on my fic, but with Pokemon characters. Now, if you re-read the chapter with this information maybe you'll enjoy it a bit more. I'm sorry about this whole 'Friends' thing. But if you have any doubts that cause you problems to understand the fic, you can just PM me or search the web. About Ross, I agree with you, out of the six main characters from Friends, he is the oddest. And has huge mood swings. One second he can be completely happy and calm and the other he can be yelling and transforming into 'The Red Ross' (which also appeared in the series). But, contrarily to you, I think Ross fits perfectly on this fic, because everything he does is comic. Anyway, I'm describing all the main characters on this chapter, from Daniel's point of view, so that you can retain the basics from Friends. Lastly, you don't need to apologize. A reviewer's job is to give his opinion and, besides that, if I were perfect in writing, I would own tons of best-sellers translated in almost every language in the world! I'm here to learn, and I can only learn if I figure out what my mistakes were. Lol, patience is indeed a virtue that few possess (but battling a Snorlax with Rest can surely become too much distress… :)) (I made a rime!). I hope you like this chapter better) and **HaloEver **(I'm glad you liked it!) for your reviews! Now, on with the story!

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**CHAPTER 10 (already!)**

**ADAPTATIONS**

The next days passed by very quickly, as Daniel had so much fun and learned so many things. His next lessons went as well as the first ones, and he started to build a solid relationship with all of Karen's Pokemon, as well as with is new body and with Karen herself again.

The six spectacular creatures that joined him on his training and taught him all he knew about fighting were also the best friends anyone could wish for to spend the rest of their lives. He now could tell how Karen was able to spend those whole three years with almost no human company. After all, it was human disbelief and mock that sent her there in the first place…

She, and now Daniel, had there a friend for each occasion.

Chandler was there if they needed to cheer up (just kidding). He was always making up sarcastic jokes and loved to tease with everyone. He was terribly afraid of commitments; maybe that was why he was _secretly_ dating Monica (even though almost everyone knew they were together).

When he wasn't with Monica nor Karen, he was always with Joey; they were the best friends, which was quite amazing, as they were completely different.

Daniel loved to swim with him. Chandler wasn't that brave at all, but it must have taken him much courage to learn to swim and he definitely was a great teacher. However, Daniel liked to see him on dry land better, since his fire attacks were absolutely astonishing and he just loved to stay there and stare at them. One of his personal favorites was Overheat, when the Typhlosion made the floor warm up to 113 degrees and then covered himself in a fire aura that spread like an earthquake and burnt everything on its way. Surprisingly, Daniel actually did something alike, with water instead, just using his psychic powers. He might have just discovered a new attack!

Rachel was the funniest female of them all. She was gorgeous, very clever, glamorous and most of all, very feminine and kind. She loved to spend time with the boys, tease with them and to gossip with the rest of the girls. But she was also a major troublemaker and she was a terrible cook. Daniel had to taste some cookies she had made. Rachel had told him they were from the same recipe from Monica's, but the taste was definitely not even alike. However, Joey seemed to like all of her strange meals. Daniel specially noticed Rachel deep affection for Ross.

During sunset, Karen usually sent Rachel to a patrol to see if there were new Pokemon in the area that she could sketch. On those last few days, Daniel would keep her company and she just kept chatting, chatting and chatting happily about everything. He loved to fly with her, especially when she used one of the most awesome flying attacks: Sky Attack. She would just start singing a sad but beautiful melody while soaring and her whole body would begin to glow. Then, she would just flap her wings once and her flight would gain an astounding speed, cutting everything in front of her like an immense blade. Daniel was still trying to master Aeroblast, the Lugia's most perfect attack, but he still couldn't come up with one.

Joey the Furret had to be Daniel's favorite Pokemon of the group! He was carefree, happy, charming and a sweetheart, but he was also very glutton and not very clever, but he was definitely the best! He was usually hanging around with Chandler, showing him how to meet some ladies, obviously completely oblivious to his friend's relation with Monica. He was also a great actor when it came to playing pranks on Marion, whenever she came by.

Daniel sure learnt a lot with him. With Joey, he began to show interest in keeping fit, surfing, being more daring and not caring about the other's opinions. He was the only one that could compare with Joey when it came to the "How're you doin'?" trick, the sentence that could grab any babe's heart. With Joey, he changed a lot from the lazy and unreasonably calm boy he was in L.A. and became much funnier, as far as a Lugia can be.

Joey mastered both land and sea attacks and Karen always counted on him when she needed to do heavy work. Joey's attacks weren't beautiful per say, but he loved to use a whole combination of them and that was absolutely amazing. His favorite combination was the one when he used Dig, Strength, Surf and finally Cut. First, Joey would dive in the soft soil of Karen's garden and would build a tunnel around Daniel. Then, he would use his Strength to elevate the huge patch of earth (as well as the young Lugia on it) and used Surf by the shape of a powerful water stream to propel everything on the air. Finally, he would attack the soaring enemy with a Cut of his tail. Usually, the power of the impact was so strong that the Pokemon would be instantly knocked out. However, Daniel would use his wings to fly just on the last moment and would avoid the crash. The only one not very happy with this was Phoebe, who took kindly care of the garden. Daniel got to improve his swimming and learnt to use Cut with his tail.

Joey was happy with his new student. He had become fit and flirty in a matter of days. After a day of hard training, Daniel would join him with Phoebe the Wigglytuff, and they just spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Daniel could tell Phoebe and Joey had something going on between them…

And speaking of Phoebe, Daniel surely had a lot of respect for her, but he knew he had to be careful around her, or he wouldn't understand what she was saying. Maybe because she just said this silly things, and matched perfectly with Joey in cleverness. But the Lugia liked her a lot still. She was always happy, she cared much about nature, flowers and singing, even though her songs weren't that beautiful. She had a special guitar that she used to play at night, when that whole odd family would reunite around the rocking chair on the front yard

Both Phoebe and Joey never let the child inside them disappear, and since they didn't care about the others' opinions, they had a relaxed and carefree living, never trying to please the others.

The training Daniel loved the most was the training with Phoebe, because she was the responsible of keeping him relaxed. With her, the young Lugia would just garden the back yard, water the plants, the flowers and fix the soil after Joey's combo attacks. When she had nothing to do, Phoebe asked Daniel to sing for her that mysterious Lugia song and tried to imitate him. She said it was a great improvement to her Sing attack. And her attacks were definitely the greatest! With them, Daniel developed his psychic powers. First, the Wigglytuff would Sing to him, with her calm voice, and would induce him to a sleep full of sweet, wonderful dreams. Then, she would use Dream Eater, where she used her own psychic powers to enter Daniel's dreams and eat them away. He would become weaker and weaker and Phoebe would grow stronger and stronger. Finally, he would wake up abruptly and the Wigglytuff would use a fatal move: Body Slam. She might be small compared to a Lugia, but the impact she caused was humongous and Daniel was instantly knocked out. Maybe that was the only non-relaxing part of their training… Later, Daniel learned a way to avoid Dream Eater. With all that practice, his psychic powers became stronger and he was able to create a psychic barrier around him during sleep, and Phoebe couldn't break it. You can learn a lot through relaxing!

Monica was the least feminine female, for she was far too competitive and athletic, but she was keen on keeping everything clean. Not to mention her excellent cooking abilities! She was the exact opposite of Rachel, but they were still the best friends.

The attractive Ampharos would spend half of her time swimming with Chandler, so, sometimes, Daniel had classes with Monica and Chandler at the same time. The other half of her time, she spent it cooking, cleaning and training the Lugia.

Well, Ross would teach him physical attacks and how to focus properly and Joey would tell him how to keep fit. But only Monica showed him how to improve his elemental attacks, the ones on which he used water, fire or electricity. And she specially minded the electricity, for Daniel's despair, as he was a both flying and water-type Pokemon and electricity was his main weakness.

But Monica wouldn't let him give up! They trained so hard that Daniel ended up knowing all elements weaknesses and strengths. But the ones he had were the ones that really mattered.

Monica had taught him simple tricks to overcome his weaknesses. Simple, but genial and quite effective. Maybe that was how she made Chandler gain the courage to swim. Daniel's greatest challenge was to reduce the effect electricity had on him. And he succeeded.

Daniel surely didn't know how Karen taught her Pokemon those amazing moves, but they sure did come in handy in battle and they were surely one of the secrets of Karen's great success. One of the most astounding moves he had seen was Monica's Zap Cannon.

Every Pokemon knew when Monica was using that attack, so every Pokemon stopped their chores to watch it. Maybe because she created a thunderstorm before she could perform the move.

It was a very quick and subtle thunderstorm. Almost immediately, the sky would be covered in dark grim clouds and thunders could be heard in the distance. Not even the shiniest sunrays could come across those terrible clouds, so everything would turn pitch-black…

Then, the thunderbolts would begin… But they were no ordinary thunderbolts. Instead of heading towards the ground, these thunderbolts headed towards _Monica _herself, or Monica's ears, if you may. It was her way to charge up electricity in order to perform her move…

She would lower her body a bit, her ears would start absorbing electricity and the red orb on the tip of her tail would start shining brightly and intermittently, first, slowly, and then, growing faster with each second, until it reached a moment when the orb was blinking so quickly that it seemed like it was just a powerful red light bulb. Meanwhile, a great ball of electricity would be forming on the similar red orb placed on her forehead. Finally, Monica would know the moment was right and would screech loudly, releasing the huge electricity sphere, an immense power that would wound Daniel badly… if he hadn't learnt a few tricks of his own…

The strategy was simple, almost too simple to stop such a terrible attack, but it worked. To prevent great suffering and a certain week spent paralyzed on a big bed, all Daniel had to do was use his psychic powers to create a thick veil of earth in front of him. Everyone knows electric moves aren't effective on ground-types, so they couldn't go through earth either.

Then, it was the Lugia's turn to attack.

Still using his psychic powers, he would send his earth shield towards Monica, she would fall back from the impact and would be unable to see clearly because her eyes would be covered in dirt. To finish her off, Daniel would use a powerful Headbutt attack and she would be certainly knocked out. And that was what he learnt from Monica: how to deal with the elements.

Last, but not the least, there was Ross. Daniel liked Ross, respected him and came to learn a lot from him, but he had to try hard to understand him. There's no other way to put it: Ross was weird, and was certainly unique. Who could figure that such little Togetic could feel so many emotions at the same time, know as much as he knew or own the respect that he owned?

Ross was the most intelligent of all Karen's Pokemon, including Daniel. He was mad about fossils and his greatest wish was to visit the Pewter Museum to see the fossils from Kabutops, Omastar and Aerodactyl. He knew almost everything there was to know about the Pokemon World History and begged Karen to watch all the educational documentaries they passed on TV.

Daniel relied on him to train his psychic and fighting abilities, as the Togetic was completely obsessed with karate and everything that improved his mind and focus. That was how he knew about Unagi, which one possesses when one's completely aware of everything surrounding one and can't ever be surprised. It was a bit risky to have lessons with a small yet powerful Pokemon that could be smiling and all happy on a moment and completely furious and becoming 'The Red Ross' on the other (there was one time when he was speaking gently to Daniel and then started screaming aloud at him just because he wasn't able to turn on the TV to the Pokemon Discovery Channel), but it was a worthy risk. Daniel ended up learning much more than he expected from him. Both his anger and cleverness came in handy during that unforgettable adventure, even if he only used them to defeat Ross more easily or just to know more about the amazing world that surrounded him.

The young Lugia obviously found out about Ross's crush on Rachel immediately and was great aid to him, as Ross couldn't handle it on his own and his trust towards Daniel had grown bigger by each day.

But Daniel's new friends weren't the only thing that made that adventure unforgettable: the whole Pokemon World also was!

He had always been the typical city boy, he loved to have everything he needed and needn't around him and loved to live in the greatest comfort, not caring much about the environmental issues nor how lonely a person can be a big city, even though there are millions of people around him.

Now, on that little piece of heaven on Earth, he finally noticed how blind he had been.

All around him was clean and beautiful. And it was when Karen would send him for a patrol with Rachel that he was the most conscious of it.

From high above, even higher than some clouds, the sunset was indescribable, such an explosion of warm and bright colors reflected on the fluffy pale clouds that filled Daniel's heart with joy and his eyes in amazement. And the fresh air he breathed! Never the smell of smoke, garbage, cars or of a busy city could be felt up there, there was just this absence of smell, and that simple inexistence made him wonder how he could even survive in LA. The feeling of flying, which he had always imagined, completed that whole set, a feeling that was far greater than he had ever dreamed of. The rushing wind, whispering wise and incomprehensible words on his ears, also rushing the beating of his already excited heart.

Much closer to the ground, inside the forest that surrounded Karen's house, the beauty was completely different, but still the same. There was life in every tree, every rock, in the very ground the two flying Pokemon overflew. Flying there, dodging every tree passing his way in a incredible speed, Daniel could always see a small Rattata nibbling on some leaves, hear the melodious song of a Swablu, feel the sweet scent of the numerous wandering Bellossoms and inhale the same fresh air, even if filled with the aroma of the surrounding pine trees. When the sun was already set on their way back to Karen's house, one would guess that the place would be quieter, but it was the exact opposite: life seemed to multiply under the mysterious moonlight. The Glooms agglomerated, the Hoot-hoots and Noctowls came out to hunt and there were Vulpixes hiding behind the bushes, waiting for their prey.

But the most beautiful place Daniel had visited there laid underwater.

Of course Rachel never joined him when he dived into the ocean on their daily patrol, but it didn't mean Daniel didn't have the greatest time. The water was so clean and transparent that one could mistake it with thin air if it weren't for the sunrays' magnificent light effect or the small groups of bubbles released by the living creatures there. The Lugia would spend loads of time there, blown away by the surrounding beauty. Magikarps swam peacefully around, just staring at the Sea Guardian with this dumb look. A large group of Corsolas would stroll along the seafloor, singing a cheerful chant. Sometimes, as the water was so clean, Daniel could also see a rare Dewgong or even the gorgeous Milotic.

During the few days the young Lugia spent learning and adapting, he go so attached to the Pokemon World that he even felt like staying there forever. However, he knew he had come there for one purpose only: to bring Karen back, apologize for everything he had done to her. He couldn't let that magical place put a spell on him…

And the first fruits of his success appeared when Karen and her strongest Pokemon finished his improvised room on the roof. Usually, when you hurry up something, it tends to end up being bad. That certainly didn't apply to Daniel's new room. It was just a big platform with a big and comfy mattress on top of it and a big blanket on the mattress. There was just a little roof covering the platform but no walls around it, so that the Lugia could sleep under the star gaze.

That night, he had flown up to his new room with Karen riding on his neck and he landed smoothly on the platform. He fell in love with the room on the very first sight.

"It's awesome, Karen, you did a great job!" he complimented her. "Thank you so much for this!"

The blonde girl thanked the dark for hiding her red cheeks. She still felt weird around that strange Lugia. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, it was nothing, really. After all, legendary Pokemon need to be well treated!"

Karen made eye contact with the Lugia and the two just stayed there for a moment, dark brown eyes staring at emerald green ones and tender smiles drawing themselves upon their lips. But then Daniel noticed how stupid he must have looked, and broke the eye contact.

The young Lugia laid on the comfy mattress and covered himself with the blanket using his mouth. The night was warm, but a gentle breeze rushed in, and his feathers weren't enough to keep him hot. Daniel stared at the sky. He couldn't see the moon, but the sky seemed to have been powdered with diamond dust, for the stars were shining so brightly.

Karen must have felt the gentle breeze and the stars' wonder at the same time because Daniel noticed her shivering a lot. Feeling like being sweet with her, the Lugia stretched his long neck to her, pushing her towards his open wing under the blanket.

"Here, you'll feel better," he only said.

The blonde girl just put the blanket around her like a cape and stared thoughtfully at the stars.

First, Daniel looked at her deeply, noticing how much she had grown up on that place, feeling sorry for all the grief he had caused that was mirrored on her eyes, but then, he understood it was still too early to win her trust back, so he found a way to break the ice… by also gazing at the stars…

"The sky looks beautiful today…," he stated.

"Yeah…," Karen sighed, "It's always like this in this place, you can always see all the stars here."

"So I really have to thank you for giving me a room up here, for welcoming me to this beautiful house. It's wonderful to have a place to learn how to be a real Pokemon."

And he really meant all of it.

"It must be difficult to lose your mother forever," the girl said, "especially for a Pokemon…". She surely missed her own mother, but she knew she did the right think when she ran away. For both of them.

"It is," he said with a sooth tone. But Daniel didn't go on on that subject line, simply because the loss of his "supposed" Lugia mother was a story he made up. Instead, he made a new eye contact with the beautiful young woman by his side.

However, she didn't seem to handle his piercing deep brown look too long as she looked away soon after and Daniel noticed her blushing brightly under the pale starlight. But she got over it quickly.

"So, what do you think about my gang?" she asked.

"Your Pokemon? They're just amazing. I'm learning a lot from them, much more than I expected to learn from my own mother. This place, being here with them, with you, has been wonderful. You should be proud of your work."

And Karen just blushed even more. She didn't know why she was acting so weird around a _Pokemon_, but there was something that reminded her so much about Daniel… Was it his smile, his eyes, or just the way he said those compliments that made her feel so good? Maybe it was the combination of all three…

Then, suddenly, Daniel felt very weird and his mouth opened up broadly, letting out a big yawn, inducing Karen to laugh out loud.

"I never imagined I would see a Lugia yawning, but your arrival here just seemed to make all those little dreams come true. You don't need to thank me for nothing: I did everything with pleasure. I always wanted to meet a Lugia."

And it was Daniel's turn to blush, trying to disguise it with a shy smile, which transformed immediately into another yawn.

Then, Karen just giggled and awkwardly yet tenderly embraced Daniel's long neck tightly and said, "I guess you must be exhausted. I know my gang is nice and wonderful, but I also know they work a lot. I'll let you go to sleep now; actually, I need some rest on my own too…", and she also let out a small yawn. "I'm glad you like to be here, you brought much joy to this place… I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

The Lugia nodded, but also replied, "Yeah, but I still have to leave you on the floor."

And the gorgeous legendary Pokemon just let her ride his back (A/N: why don't these things happen to me instead!) and landed gently on the floor. Then, she just hugged him good-bye one final time and went towards the front door.

"Good night, Karen," said the Lugia.

"Good night, Daniel," said the girl.

The last thing he saw before he fell asleep on his comfy mattress was Chandler and Monica hiding on Phoebe's well-treated garden.

And both the girl and the Lugia slept well that night.

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**END OF CHAPTER**

Ta dah! Don't I just love fluffy moments… I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic…

Yeah, I know I promised I'd update this fic as soon as possible, and, as a matter of fact, I kept my promise. I know I'm already on holidays, but I've really been very busy, and I'm happy I got to finish this already (time is a very precious thing, I really wish I could make more for me…)

So, I hope you liked this chapter (which is the longest I wrote till now) and I really appreciated if you clicked that review button and left your opinion…

Thank you for your time… See ya next chapter…

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	11. The Calm Before the Storm

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. If I did, Harrison and his Blaziken would appear more often. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, huh… oh, I wouldn't change anything besides what I mentioned before, as it is so great! Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Notes: **First of all, I want to say that you, my readers, are very lucky, as I'm going through a very good phase of my life and I feel very inspired to write! Second, as usual, thank you **Mew3692002 **(you can't imagine how surprised I was when I accessed my e-mail box and I had 10 new messages, all reviews for this fic! You made my day! I'm glad you also think that caringly-trained Pokemon can defeat legendary ones, I'm glad you like the way I describe flights and swimming parts, but I'm specially glad that I made someone fall in love with Lugia has I fell. But I hope you changed your opinion about Ross the Togetic: sure, he can be a bit brutal, but deep down he's the sweetest. Well, I want to go to the Pokemon World too… Maybe someday I'll find a special book somewhere… Of course, the calm before the storm… And I guess you can take it literally this time… One more chapter at maximum until the action starts… Thank you for your great reviews!), **HaloEver **(I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, thanks for correcting my mistake…), **dragonsrulllz **(Thanks for your review, but I don't think it would be a good idea, Daniel will only return to his human form when he brings Karen back or/and she returns his love for her. Sorry, but it just can't happen… But thanks for the suggestion!) and for your inspirational reviews! Third, I hope you didn't have to wait much for this… On with the story!

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**CHAPTER 11**

**THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM… (thank you Mew3692002 for the idea!)**

Daniel's trainings were going very well: every day was a new adventure, he learnt more and more every second and felt there happier than he felt when he was human. Well, with Chandler's jokes, Joey and Phoebe's lightness and Karen's compliments who wouldn't? Only then he realized how much he missed her, her smile, her cheerful and talkative nature, even though she had now her own ghosts from the past. His plan of winning back her trust was working very well and every night he decided his next steps before he went to sleep.

He was getting a more powerful and convincing Lugia as time passed and his teachers were very happy with his success, but Daniel still wasn't able to perform an Aeroblast and he still couldn't pass the final test, the one that would make him a real part of that team: a battle against all the six Pokemon at the same time. It was true he had already won several battles against them when they were fighting one on one, but the six friends were much stronger together than apart. Some of them covered the others' weaknesses and together they made even more astounding combined moves, like Chandler and Joey's "Bomb Toss" (when Chandler would use Rollout and Joey threw his friend to their enemies), which was particularly painful when he was flying, and Rachel and Monica's "Dive Punch", when Monica rode on Rachel while she was Flying above Daniel and then dropped on him, using a very powerful Thunder Punch on his back. Also, Phoebe's Body Slam never let him perform a complete Whirlpool and Ross's Metronome always threw the surprise element into the battle. But the worst of all was when they all used the Return attack at the same time, the attack that grows more powerful according to the level of Friendship between Pokemon and Trainer. Daniel tried and retried to win that battle, but he just wasn't able to do it. Not even the legendary Lugia can match the power of Friendship… unless he uses Friendship on his own too…

Watching Daniel being defeated over and over and still trying to win the battle one more time sure touched Karen's heart, and she knew she had trained her Pokemon a little too well, so she decided to help him with that, mainly because he deserved victory after all that persistence, but also because she wanted him to be full part of the team. So, hiding it from the others, they started having secret training sessions, on which they had loads of fun together, besides all the funny secrets Karen revealed about her Pokemon.

"So, let me see…" she said, starting to think about her Pokemon's few weaknesses. "They will first try to attack you separately, so you try to inflict as much damage as you can then. You already know their weaknesses there, so I won't lose that much time. Or don't you?"

"Chandler's weaker when I put his flame out, I just need to Headbutt him. Rachel's not as fast as I am, so I can make her use her Sky Attack against the wall instead of me. Joey has less fighting abilities in midair, so I'll make him Surf my Whirlpool till he reaches its middle and then I'll stop it and slash him with my tail. I can dodge Phoebe with my psychic powers, Safeguarding myself from her, and then using my own Sing to distract her. Monica's tougher, but I still can use my dirt shield against her. Ross is the easiest, if I transform him into 'The Red Ross', he won't be able to concentrate enough to win. But I'm not worried about that, Karen, the problem is when they're working together," Daniel explained.

"And we'll find a solution to that too… Their combo attacks can be difficult to dodge, but it's not impossible. But you'll have to be in complete harmony with your Safeguard, because it will help you a lot. So, do you control your Safeguard well?"

"I do."

"Good. Then I will tell you their secrets… The first combo they'll do will be the 'Diving Punch' and I can tell you exactly how to stop it. As you know, Chandler and Monica are secretly dating (A/N: Lol…), and their love for each other is transparent in battle. For example, when Monica dives towards you using Thunder Punch, Chandler will always be on the ground to catch her in his arms when she falls. So, when they use that combo, try to fly over water to make Monica dive into the sea when you dodge her. Oblivious to Chandler's presence, she will Thunder Punch the water, and you can guess the rest…"

"Yeah, electricity travels through water, and all of her attack's power will hit Chandler, knocking him out…" he answered. "That's a very clever trick…"

"How do think I got to where I am today? And it isn't all… Monica will be distracted then and it will be the perfect time to Headbutt her. And just like that, your most difficult opponent will be out."

Daniel liked her ideas a lot, and listened to them all. With Karen's help, he was sure to win against them all. He already felt like he was part of the team, but another feeling swept over him: pride. He was very proud of her success, of the way she found happiness so far away, of how she was faithful to her beliefs till the end. It was while he was preparing to face the final test when the first stab of doubt hit him. Was he doing the right thing? His best friend was happy now, should he take her away from her happiness? However, he hadn't much time to think about it, as he found himself on the battlefield again: on the beach, by the calm ocean, waiting for the battle to begin again.

He landed gently right in front of the sea, feeling the foam invade his big feet. The Lugia looked to his left and answered Karen's greeting with a broad smile. It was when his opponents finally arrived.

The first part of the battle was very easy. Still on the ground, Chandler used his Overheat move to roast Daniel, but he directed a powerful water stream to the other's neck and put out the flame that powered his fire attacks. Feeling hopeless, the Typhlosion still tried to use his Earthquake, but the Lugia flew up and dodged the attack.

Chandler wanted to carry on, but then Rachel came. He would have another chance to attack him later. The female Pidgeot obviously joined Daniel on air. First, she tried to attack him with her Fly attack, but he was just too agile. Of course she then tried to use Sky Attack and of course Daniel dodged the attack, but Rachel didn't hit the cliff as planned for she was able to stop herself at cost in time. But the battle wasn't over yet and the Lugia had another chance. Just not now…

The Pidgeot left the battlefield and Joey the Furret entered. He had his usual daring smile on his face and was ready for battle, even though it wouldn't be that good for the poor mammal Pokemon. Like he had planned with Karen, Daniel brought the fight to the ocean and dived into it, creating an awesome full-sized Whirlpool when he returned to the surface. Also, like he had planned, the unaware Joey Surfed Daniel's Whirlpool, giving the Lugia the chance to destroy it right when the Joey was in the middle of it, by opening his wings widely. Daniel tried to attack the Furret with his tail, but Joey recovered instantly from the previous move and his reflexes made him dodge the powerful blow by directing water stream-like Surf to Daniel's head. He then swam swiftly to the beach and Dug, hiding under the sand. Daniel could easily dodge the attack by continuing to fly, but he had a much better idea. He landed near a big and heavy rock on the sand and laid his head on it. He knew Joey could sense his weight from the underground and he would know exactly where he was, but Daniel also knew he would mistake the huge rock with a part of the Lugia's body and would attack it instead of him. The other Pokemon quickly understood the plan and Phoebe screamed, "Joey, don't do that! It's not gonna work!"

But the Furret could never hear his friend's advice from the underground and decided to un-burrow himself right under the giant rock he had dumbly mistaken with Daniel's head. Evidently, however powerful Joey could be, he could never lift that rock with his bare head. So, instead of hitting Daniel as he had planned, the Furret Headbutted the rock hard, making an immense noise, knocking himself out instantly. They needed ten minutes, all the Pokemon's strength and Karen's help to take the unconscious Furret out of the sand and then home for some rest.

Phoebe was next. She was still a bit frustrated about Joey's failure to attack Daniel, but that only gave her even more will to beat him. She immediately started Singing, but Daniel had some tricks to stop her: he started to Sing his own melodious song too. As his voice was much louder, it was Phoebe who became dizzier by the minute, until she couldn't stand her eyelids open anymore. Then, Daniel just used Psychic to lift her up and to send her crashing down to the floor in an astounding speed. Just like Joey before, the Wigglytuff didn't resist the attack. Two down, another four to go. The Lugia just said, "You can never let anger control you in battle, you will lose your focus and won't be able to see what happens around you." Ross's face lit up with a smile.

"I taught him that!" he exclaimed. But Monica just elbowed him on his "egg". She went forward, frowning, ready to take him on.

The Lugia could know a lot of tricks to stop elemental attacks, but he also knew Monica was smarter than he was when it came to that, mainly because she constantly invented new moves in battle. "Fighting is a lot like cooking: if you use always the same moves or ingredients, it will get boring and you'll grow a defense to it," she usually said. However, he wasn't prepared for what came next. The attractive Ampharos charged up a Zap Cannon attack and Daniel had his Safeguard ready, not knowing he wouldn't need it, just because Monica directed her powerful electrical attack to the ground, opening a big trench on the sand that stopped right between his cat-like legs, but still unable to reach the Lugia. Daniel looked confused at her. What was she trying to do? He felt scared when he saw the evil smile on her face and finally understood her plan when the trench she created filled with seawater. He panicked. If he didn't fly up immediately, Monica would Thunder Punch the water and the attack would hurt him badly. But when the Lugia was motioning to leave the ground, Monica used a little effective yet useful move: Cotton Spore. A big cloud of cotton balls invaded him and his evasiveness fell harshly. He wasn't able to move a muscle! Then, smiling madly, the Ampharos Thunder Punched the artificial water line and hit Daniel. He had the presence of spirit to bring up his Safeguard in the middle of the attack, but most of the damage was done. And was with him facing down the sand and with Monica leaving the battlefield proudly that Ross, the last solo fighter, came in. But not for too long…

He let the Lugia recover from the previous blow (for it was what an honest fighter did) and prepared himself for what he believed to be the attack that would bring Daniel down. Feeling lucky, the Togetic used his Metronome. The young Lugia looked expectantly at the small Pokemon. He knew he could expect anything, but he hoped that it would be something that would help him. And it really was! The attack he used was High Jump Kick, but as Daniel was on the ground, Ross missed him, and came crashing to the ground, hurting himself. "I'm okay…" he muttered from the sand, when the rest of the still conscious Pokemon came to his aid.

Rachel said, "I'm glad you are, because that way I can strangle you for missing that move!"

And the group joined and started to discuss some tactics silently, while Daniel recovered completely from Monica's attack. There were still four Pokemon left and the worst part of the battle had just begun, but Daniel was confident he would win that time. Besides, Karen came to cheer him up for a minute, and her support was more than enough for him to beat up an entire family of rampant Gyarados.

And then finally, the four Pokemon separated and joined in two groups of two: Monica and Rachel, Ross and Chandler. As Daniel expected, Monica and Rachel were the first group to attack and he went on with his plan and overflew the ocean, noticing that Chandler started heading there too, for Ross's great despair. Looking up, he could also see Monica riding Rachel with the same mad smile she had before, ready to repeat the previous move. But now Daniel knew he could face her with the same smile.

Suddenly, the Ampharos fell from the beautiful Pidgeot and dived to the Lugia's back, her closed fist already sparkling greatly. But Daniel only made one swift move to get out of her trajectory and make her dive in the ocean instead, her electric attack hitting Chandler as planned. And like Karen said, Monica distracted herself a bit while lecturing her loved one.

"Darn it, Chandler! Why did you have to get on the way?" she yelled.

"Thank you very much, I was just trying to assure you a safe landing!" he retorted.

"I don't care! Now we're only three against a LUGIA!"

And Daniel took advantage of the moment to try to attack the Ampharos, but he was abruptly stopped by Rachel, who got on his way. She yelled to her friend, "Monica, just stop it and take Chandler to the others for treatment. We still have a chance. Ross and I will try to stop him!"

"Yeah, as if you had a chance without me…" was the last thing they heard the Ampharos say.

Rachel just ignored her and made the Lugia fly between her and Ross the Togetic. Then, she just yelled, "NOW!" and the two flying Pokemon Flew towards Daniel.

Daniel half expected that, so he immediately thought of an escape plan. Right on the last moment, he used all his Agility and knowledge to get out of their attack line. He folded his great silver-white wings against his body and dived, still hearing the loud crash of the two friends. He entered the water during the commotion outside, stood still and sharpened his audition to hear the others' plan. The first thing he heard was Monica, returning from the beach.

"I can't believe you missed that one! Now Ross is down too! It's only you and me against Daniel!"

"I know, I know!" Rachel yelled. "But there wasn't much we could do! Now stop yelling and we'll finish him off! He never endured this attack, even underwater."

And Daniel could see them motioning towards him through the crystal-clear water and he knew that if he escaped now, he could win the battle: he just had to remember what Karen taught him.

"Ready?" Monica asked.

"Ready," Rachel answered.

"_Ready,"_ Daniel thought.

And the two females clapped their hands or wings in front their bodies, creating a massive energy wave around them that extended to the distance, destroying everything on its way. That was the power of a perfectly done Return. Luckily, Daniel had a trick up his sleeve and Safeguarded himself from that deadly blow. That time, his protective shield resisted, because they were only two Pokemon using Return. When the attack finally faded away, the two female Pokemon got closer to the still submerging Daniel to try to see if he was still conscious, but that was their biggest mistake. Sensing their proximity, all Daniel did was smile and sing. And then, driven by his new and outstanding psychic powers, the water around him seemed to explode, sending Monica and Rachel away. They actually got one second to understand what happened to them before they lost their senses. And a wave of happiness swept over him: he had won the battle, he had passed the final test!

So, he flew up to the surface as fast as a bullet and burst out of the water, small liquid diamond-like tears flying everywhere, his wings wide open and his head facing the sky, singing with his entire splendor. He flew to the sun and the drops still dripping from his silver body transformed into little rainbows. The beauty of the moment was only comparable to the happiness he was feeling. After that short instant of delight, the Lugia landed graciously on the sand, still with a broad smile on his face.

Karen ran to him and hugged his neck caringly. She too felt ecstatic, her favorite Pokemon was part of her Pokemon team! What else could be better?

"You did great! That last move was just amazing! Who taught you that?" she exclaimed.

"Chandler. It's kind of a water version of Overheat. It was the heat of the moment that made me use it. I just hope they'll be alright…" he stated, staring the six fainted Pokemon.

"Don't worry, they will. They are very strong Pokemon. They'll just be a bit rancorous for the few next days, but I know they'll be happy for having you in the team. You did great!"

And they just took the fainted Pokemon home, let them rest and spent the rest of the afternoon celebrating. Karen even made a seafood soufflé for him. It didn't taste exactly as Monica's, but it was as delicious. Maybe because she had made it just for him…

When the starlight replaced the frail sunlight, Karen started telling Daniel more about the team. She showed him an old scrapbook where she kept all the newspaper clippings of her adventure. The Lugia listened and saw everything with a passionate attention, awe-struck with all she had done, all she had achieved all by herself. Champion of the Kanto, Jotho and Hoenn League. Winner of several contests (Joey was even the great champion of all Cool Contests and had his portrait done for the Lilycove Art Museum). Victor of the Silver Conference, where she had the pleasure to meet Harrison, the handsome (A/N: hum…) trainer that defeated the legendary Ash Ketchum on one of its battles. You name what more. There was still one time when even the great Professor Oak studied her Pokemon peculiar talking ability. And all that in three years. How could the young legendary Pokemon not be surprised?

Suddenly, the feeling of being part of that team made him happier, being able to belong to the greatest Pokemon trainer he had known was very rewarding. He partly wished for his plan to remain like that, but he knew it was impossible. Sooner or later, he would have to tell her the truth about who he really was, as her trust for him had been finally reestablished, but he didn't want to do it now, when everything was perfect. He feared she could never love him back, he feared she wouldn't come back to him. Why would she anyway? However, a plan was a plan, and he would stick to it till the end. The worst that could happen was for him to be abandoned on the Pokemon World as a Lugia, and he was already adapted to that fantastic body.

But he wouldn't think about it now: his best friend/the girl he loved was sharing her life with him and he didn't want to miss a bit. His problems could wait… Barely had he known they could only wait little…

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Lawrence the Third, the great Pokemon Collector, had spent the last week watching every move our Daniel made from his airship, after two days of looking for him. During that time, he found out most of his daily routine, as well as all his abilities and a way to catch him. Sure he was still a young Lugia and had less-than-half the splendor the Great Sea Guardian, but the Collector saw his Water Aura attack from distance and became fascinated by him. If he caught him as soon as possible, he could even teach him a few more astounding moves for Daniel to impress the others at the reunion.

And he was really planning to catch the legendary Pokemon in two days time, at night, when he would be completely alone, sleeping on his improvised room on the roof. Luckily, he didn't have to deal with the police nor do anything illegal, as the young girl that kept him didn't capture him in a PokeBall, so he wouldn't be stealing the Lugia. Everything was going very well…

"How is the Sea Beast tonight?" Lawrence asked his ship's main computer.

"Its status remains normal and unchanged, but the readings tell the Lugia feels happier today," a mechanical voice answered.

"That will change quickly," Lawrence stated, "After all, a legendary Pokemon must always look serious. Otherwise, it'll lose most of its majesty. I want the capturing plan complete tomorrow night, so that we can move forward with it the next night."

"As you wish, Sir"

And the Collector just stared at the window evilly. "This time, you won't escape. You were created to be part of my collection…"

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**END OF CHAPTER**

Finally, this is over!

Sorry for taking so long to update, but I've been a bit lazy these days… Let's just say that Jak (from the PS2 game series) has put a spell on me and I can't stop playing the second game over and over again… However, this chapter turned out to be bigger than what I expected, so I guess it compensates…

Anyway, it will only be three more chapters till the end of this story and I already thought of a sequel, even though I won't write it right away… (please, don't kill me!)

Last of all, I hope you liked this chapter and I really appreciated if you reviewed… Thank you, all that did till now, you're the ones that make this worth it!

I think I've got nothing else to say… See ya next chapter!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	12. Truth Revealed Under a Stormy Sky

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. If I did, I'd change the game's battle style completely. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, copies and pastes the same sentence from the previous chapter huh… oh, I wouldn't change anything besides what I mentioned before, as it is so great! Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.

**Author's Notes: **Hello, everyone! Here's a new chapter, we're slowly coming to the end of this fic. I'm a bit sad myself, I really loved to write this, but I think it was worth it. I NEVER thought I would have those many reviews on my very first fic (thank you so much, people…).

As usual, I want to thank **Lost Yoshi **(First, I understand what you say about catching Lugia: I've went through the same while trying to catch Kyogre on the Sapphire Version and I still haven't caught it. Lastly, I'm really glad you liked this chapter, I hope these next and final chapters will win other good reviews from you), **HaloEver **(wow, that was a real surprise! Well, just let me tell you that you have a beautiful name and that you don't need to worry: Daniel will have a happy ending!), (I promise you that sooner or later I will finish this story! Thank you for telling me about the 'For the Love of Lugia' stories. I hadn't read them yet, but I've read the first one now and I liked it very much, it's kind of the opposite of my story. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter), **dragonsrulllz **(dragons do rule!), **DragonMaster02 **(sighs yeah, I wish I were a Lugia too, but oh well… Unfortunately, I have no Pokemon, but my Muse is Jak from the PS2 games, it's wonderful the same! If I'm attacked by a raging Gyarados I can always release my Dark Jak on it. xD. Anyway, I hope you like this story so far…), **Mew3692002 **(what can I say, the sentence matched my needs! You'll know Lawrence techniques once you've finished reading this chapter, and as for Aeroblast, he will only learn it later. I'm very glad you liked that chapter and I hope you like this one too!) and **Pwnanator **(I'm very glad that you liked my fic, and about the friendship thing, I'm also glad you think that: if the reader doesn't give enough credit to the characters' friendship, he won't be able to fall in love with them. About your story, there are these strange coincidences that make the world around us be surprising again. I would love to read your fic and you're completely free to use Karen wherever you want, can you just tell me the name of your story? Thank you for your review and I hope you like this humble chapter…) for making my day with your motivating reviews. You, as well as my dear Jak, are the best Muses in the world!

I have nothing else to say…

On with the story!

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**CHAPTER 12**

**TRUTH REVEALED UNDER A STORMY SKY**

Karen was right about one thing: her Pokemon were very strong. Proof of that was that they were recovered completely from their defeat the next morning. Monica even woke up in time to cook everyone some fantastic pancakes for breakfast!

That day was special for it was the day when the whole gang showed Daniel all of their secrets, all of their training facilities, all he had to know now he belonged to their team. Karen just watched them from distance, with a cheerful smile on her lips, happy for the bright future she saw on the horizon. She could tell the Lugia was as happy as she was, for he accompanied the others with a zealous devotion and absorbed all their teachings like a sponge absorbs water.

And the blonde girl felt the same weird stream of feelings invade her again, feelings concerning the teen legendary Pokemon. Was she going mad? Her affections for Daniel were growing bigger by the day and she couldn't explain why… It had to be his similarities with her ex-best friend… The Lugia reminded her so much of him that it hurt… The more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to be with him and the more she regretted abandoning the real Daniel, the city boy she loved and broke her heart. But she couldn't let herself _fall in love _with a POKEMON! No, a LEGENDARY Pokemon, a LUGIA! It would only bring her more suffering, as well as would ruin the happy relationship she had with her favorite Pokemon.

However, no matter how much she tried to send away those feelings, she couldn't do it by herself. She needed her Pokemon's help. She needed to talk to them.

So, when dusk came and it was time to send Rachel and Daniel to their daily patrol, Karen freed the Pidgeot from it and let the Lugia go on his own. Sure he suspected something was going on, but he didn't insist. Maybe it was a good thing for him… Rachel also found it weird that Karen wanted to speak to all of them. Maybe she wanted them not to embarrass Daniel since he was a newcomer.

But it turned out that they were all wrong. And every one of them was completely mesmerized when she told them what that was all about.

"Wait a second…" Joey said, being the first one to get over the shock, "you're telling us you LOVE Daniel? Is that it?"

"Yes?" she answered, scared.

"But how come? I'm much more attractive, why don't you love me? Here, look at this…" and the Furret put on his characteristic daring smile, "How're you doin'?"

But Karen ignored him completely.

"That's not the point, I can't be in love with him! Come on, he's a Pokemon, he's one of MY Pokemon! I need your help, guys! I'm completely desperate!"

And after some minutes of complete meditation (or staring at the ceiling while wondering what he would have for diner that night to Joey), Rachel the Pidgeot came up with one of her "brilliant" plans.

"I have an idea!" she yelled.

"Why do I have a feeling it's going to involve guys?" Chandler asked sarcastically.

"You could get over Daniel by meeting a real man! Preferably if he is your species…"

"What a surprise, it INVOLVED guys…" the Typhlosion spoke again.

Ignoring him, Rachel went on.

"The other day, while Daniel and I were on our patrol and he went swimming for a while, there was this guy that fed me with the most delicious PokeFood I've tasted…"

Monica cleared her throat angrily.

"…Huh, I've tasted besides Monica's cooking, and he was really nice to me… and he was really cute too…"

But Karen didn't like the way the conversation was heading.

"Look, Rachel, I know your intentions are the best, but I don't think…"

"Come on, Karen! At least give it a try! You know, this all thing of having feelings about Daniel may be a way to tell you to find someone to whom you can give all your heart. You've done so much with your life, maybe it's time to settle down."

And the blonde young woman thought about those words, knowing the Pidgeot was right. She REALLY had to get over her best friend and it wouldn't hurt to meet someone new…

"What about the rest of you?" she asked. "What do you think about Rachel's idea?"

The whole Poke gang exchanged looks before they could all say in unison, "Yeah, she's right…"

"You can't be stuck with us forever, Karen!" Ross even said.

"But what about Daniel? I wanted to go with him to the forest tomorrow. The Taillows and Swellows are already here and I need him to sketch them…"

"Don't worry about Daniel, we'll stay with him! And you can sketch them another day, they're staying here for two seasons! Just go with the boy and have fun!" Rachel said.

"And how am I supposed to have a date with him tomorrow if I don't even know his name?"

"Once again, don't worry!" the flying Pokemon said. "If you let me, I can go to the village as soon as this conversation ends and deliver a note in your behalf. Jack's (A/N: lol…) a really nice guy (and trust me, we Pokemon can tell it), I'm sure he would be glad to meet someone new too, specially someone as gifted as you…"

"And by 'gifted', she means you're so hot he will even stop breathing for a second when he sees you," Joey the Furret added. Typical him.

"Yeah, it was something on the lines of that…" Rachel agreed.

Karen still reflected about it a little more, but she soon reached a conclusion: she would carry on with Rachel's plan.

"So, let's start this note…"

And they all got to work, hoping Daniel would take a bit longer than normal…

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Finding Jack wasn't that difficult. Not with her feminine instinct and, of course, Marion's help. And, obviously, Rachel's assumption of his personality and appearance was correct too. So correct that Marion even stated that if "Karen didn't want him, she would take him" when she left the Pidgeot in front of the young man's house.

As Rachel would expect, Jack was also taking care of his Pokemon at the moment, feeding the Miltanks, the Mareeps and the Ponytas with the same delicious PokeFood she loved. Knowing she could trust him, she landed right beside him and poked him lightly with her beak, peeping softly. Obviously, however trustworthy Jack was, a Pidgeot couldn't be seen around talking just like that. Instantly, the young man turned around and started smiling.

"Hey there, princess! You came for more food?" he asked.

But Rachel just stretched out her paw and showed him the note. He caught up quickly and untied it, reading it silently. After a few minutes, he spoke again.

"So, you've got an owner! It's very nice of her to ask me to this picnic, but do you think I should go?"

The Pidgeot nodded happily.

"So, I'll just have to show up by the Big Pine-Tree tomorrow morning and she'll be there? Well, I suppose it's okay… She must be a great person, she trained you very well. Tell her I'll go."

And it was with a smile that Rachel the Pidgeot left the young man to his tasks and returned home. If she was lucky, this would be the first time when one of her plans _actually_ worked…

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So, as you can imagine, the next day was a very afflicted one, because everyone wanted to make sure Karen's date would be perfect. Everyone, except Daniel, who watched everything from the backyard window, as the females were preparing the blonde girl inside.

"Can anyone tell me how in the world Karen got a date?" he constantly asked the boys.

"Don't ask me, I know as much as you do," Joey replied. "I guess everyone needs some company from the same species now and then…"

"She had Marion…"

"You know what I meant!"

Unfortunately, Daniel did. And he was also caught in complete surprise when Karen told him they had to cancel the next day's plans because she was supposed to meet someone else. He thought his plan was going well… Now it seemed that every effort was worth nothing… And that feeling didn't go away when the young woman came outside and a waft of an incredibly appealing and familiar scent invaded his acute senses. She looked beautiful, even if she was only dressed with simple clothes. They only seemed to enhance her beauty even more. If he wasn't that disappointed with himself, his chin would have dropped to the ground, like Joey's did.

"That's what I was talking about!" the Furret stated. "So hot he will even stop breathing!"

Karen smiled at the statement and then turned to Daniel, who let his sadness take over his eyes. Feeling a bit bad herself about all that, she moved towards him and hugged his neck tight closely.

"I'm so sorry to have to cancel everything. I promise we'll do it another day…"

Deep inside, Daniel had a bitter answer to that, but he knew he was being stupid if he said it. So, he just enjoyed the hug and replied, "Don't worry about that, of course we can do it another day. I just want you to have fun, okay?"

"'Kay…" was everything she was able to say.

They still hugged for some seconds, but then she let go and went to ride Rachel, who would take her to the meeting point. In the meanwhile, Daniel breathed all her sweet scent in and slowly realized why it was so familiar. And that wasn't good at all…

The Lugia quickly snapped out of his trance and looked around. Now, the entire Poke Gang was outside, waving at the flying Pidgeot, who was becoming more and more nothing but an indistinct shadow, and his eyes fell upon Phoebe the Wigglytuff, as he asked with a scared tone, "Phoebe, can you tell me which perfume Karen put today?"

First, Phoebe was caught off guard by the sudden question, but she recovered rapidly and answered, "Yes, Rachel gave her one of mine, why?"

"Was it the one with the pink vial?"

"Yes, why?"

But Daniel didn't answer right away, for he was in complete shock.

"Oh my God, I think we have a big problem here!"

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Just as planned, Rachel left her owner quickly by the Big Pine-tree and Jack was already there. And Karen noticed her Pidgeot wasn't exaggerating when she said the young man was handsome.

He was standing there tall and quiet, with a beautiful and shy smile on his face, his golden-blond hair glowing with the same colors of the sun, his piercing dark-green eyes carving a hole through her soul. But still he was no match to Daniel, she thought. And she could tell her appearance was having the same impact on him.

He motioned towards her in a hesitating pace and held her hand gently, kissing it softly, like a true gentleman.

"Hello there, my name's Jack and I'm your date today. I'm glad to meet you," he greeted.

A memory of the day she first met Daniel came across her mind, but she blocked it right away.

"The pleasure is all mine," she answered.

Then, the two young adults set their picnic "table" right there and started a promising date that would, unfortunately, end up in tragedy…

Once they found a mutual interest, they started talking with no end in sight and, for some moments, Karen was really thankful about Rachel's plan. Jack was as nice and gentle as she said and she found herself talking about subjects she thought she wouldn't talk about that lightly. Maybe her Pokemon were right, maybe she needed to find someone to whom she could give her heart.

During that time she spent talking to him, there was no Daniel in her mind, even though her heart kept yelling his name and she felt guilty for abandoning him that day. But her mind was able to shut all those voices. She couldn't fall in love with a Pokemon, however similar he was to her best friend. Daniel was gone and she would never, ever be with him again.

And plus, it seemed that Rachel had picked a good perfume that time, because its appealing aroma spread quickly and appeared to loosen up the environment between the two young adults. Barely she knew that it wasn't the only purpose the mentioned perfume had…

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"Oh my God, I think we have a big problem here!" the scared Lugia exclaimed.

The sentence drew everyone's attention to him, and Chandler even asked, "What do you mean, we have a problem?"

"Joey, remember that prank we were planning to do on Marion? The one with the bug allurement?"

The Furret started laughing.

"Yeah, we put it on that pink perfume so that Marion would put it when she came to visit us! She ALWAYS asks Phoebe for some perfume! It was going to be hilarious when Marion was walking by the forest and a swarm of Ledians started chasing her! I'd give half my tail to see it!"

And the rest of the group began to realize the problem. It was Karen the victim of that prank and, unluckily, Ledians weren't the worst thing the forest harbored. No, the forest was home to a furious swarm of the infamous Beedrills.

"Oh my God!" the rest group exclaimed in unison.

"I know! It's a brilliant plan! It's a shame Rachel had to waste it with Karen…" Joey went on, completely oblivious to the problem.

And that made Ross lose his temper.

"Dude, wake up! It will be Karen the one chased by Ledians, or worse, Beedrills! So, if you want so much to see what comes from your so called 'brilliant' pranks, you can start cutting half your tail right now!"

"But I don't have scissors!"

On the other hand, Chandler remained sarcastic as usual.

"I knew it was too good to be true, one of Rachel's plans working! What do we do now? Send her another perfume with bug repellent?"

"Don't mess with my perfumes!" Phoebe warned. "I'm mad enough with Joey! We'll have to wait, only Rachel knows where they're going, only she can tell where we can find them."

And, luckily, Rachel was on her way back, and landed near the worried Pokemon with a blissful smile on her beak.

"One Lovey-dovey meal served hot by the Big Pine-tree! You can all thank me later!" she said happily.

"Oh, thank you Rachel," Ross started, "for poisoning our owner with one of the most dangerous venoms of all Kanto, Jotho and Hoenn!" he finished shouting.

"What are you talking…?"

"The PINK perfume you chose, Rachel, it attracts bugs, it attracts BEEDRILLS!" the Togetic yelled.

"Wait a second, mister! First of all, you're the one always wearing a pink shirt when you're cold! And second, it was a wonderful perfume, it was one of Phoebe's, she's the guilty one, not me!"

"Hey!" the Wigglytuff protested.

"Sorry!" the other female yelled.

"It's a salmon shirt, not pink! And we don't have time to discuss this now! Tell us where you left Karen and that guy!"

"They stayed by the Big Pine-tree, they're having a picnic there! I'll go back, I can take care of some measly bug Pokemon!"

"No!" Daniel yelled all of a sudden. "I'll go!"

The whole Poke Gang stared dumbfounded at him.

"You can't go!" Monica stated. "You're a Lugia, you can't appear like that in front of strangers!"

"Yeah, especially if it was Rachel who brought them to our lives…" Ross hissed.

"But I have a bad feeling about this! Something tells me the Beedrills won't be the only problem! Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself!"

And the others simply let him go. What more could they do against a young Lugia that was able to take them all together even them being so powerful?

Daniel just hoped he would arrive there in time…

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The date was going pretty well. They hadn't shut up a bit since they started talking and Karen was starting to like this Jack. He had brought some homemade food with him and, since it was already midday, her stomach was starting to growl in an empty protest. His meal was simply delicious and that opened her up to start talking about Monica's also excellent cooking abilities. She could tell he was surprised with her Pokemon level of training.

However, when their improvised lunch was over and her perfume had the chance to spread across all the surroundings, the two young adults realized they were not alone.

It started with a low buzz, a low rustling noise that came from afar and was almost imperceptible. Then it became louder and louder, and made the two teens wonder what it was. Was it some wood-cutter taking down a tree with his terrible saw? But afterwards they realized it was something worse, when a big swarm of giant-sized bee-like Pokemon came flying as fast as bullets towards them, their poisonous barbs shining off in the sun.

"Beedrills!" Jack exclaimed, immediately getting up. "Run, they're coming after us!"

And he just grabbed her hand tightly and ran away as fast as a teen human can run.

Their situation was worse than hopeless: they were running away from a furious group of Beedrills on feet and hadn't a single Pokemon with them to get them out of that mess. Why did she send Rachel home, anyway? Even if they didn't fall down completely exhausted from all the running, the bug-Pokemon were much faster than them, not to mention they knew the forest better. And besides that, Karen noticed they weren't inside the forest anymore. The Beedrills had led them to a trap, they were leading them to the mountain, or more precisely, to a _cliff_ near the mountain. And once they got there, there was no escape…

But it was too late to change that trend, because the sudden drop of land that characterized the cliff was right in front of the two scared young adults and they had to stop abruptly, or they would spare the Beedrills' job of killing them painfully with a self-inflicted quick death.

The bee Pokemon stopped too after them, they had them where they wanted. They were now buzzing madly and their two arm barbs as well as their rear barb seemed deadlier than ever.

"Somebody help us!" the blonde girl yelled in despair.

But only a miracle could save them now.

------------------------------------------------------

Daniel flew real fast, faster than he could imagine on his wildest dreams, for he sensed something terrible was about to happen, and he knew he could trust his feelings.

The other Pokemon just tried to get out of his way as quickly as they could and wondered why a legendary Pokemon was in such a hurry. There were some that just saw an indistinct blur speeding right beside them and almost had a heart attack from the scare.

Anyway, the Lugia had to be more careful when he reached the forest because its abundance in trees, but he didn't stay there long: Karen wasn't by the Big Pine-tree anymore. Just like he suspected, the situation had become more complicated than they first imagined.

And all of a sudden, he heard a scream, a familiar feminine voice from afar, and he knew it was his chance to get to Karen. Using his incredible hearing, he followed her voice out of the dense forest, to the rocky path leading to the mountain and (he gulped at this thought) to the cliff. He just hoped he would get there in time…

Then, he found himself right behind a big swarm of Beedrills and, fortunately, not only Karen but also that Jack guy were safe. Catching the bug Pokemon in surprise, Daniel roared his powerful melody loudly, and it seemed that the Beedrills almost died from the scare. Almost. But they recovered quickly and the scare made them even angrier. Nothing he couldn't handle, though. And he hadn't to do much.

Using his psychic powers, he created an aura around himself that made him look bigger and scarier, as well as made his voice sound rougher and more powerful. That, combined with the fact that he was one of the mightiest Pokemon kinds alive, had a serious impact on the now small-seeming swarm of Beedrills. All he had to do was to say, "_Who dares to defy my authority, the Sea Guardian's commands? Which pesky, insignificant bug shamefully tries to harm these humans?"_

Even Karen was scared of the power and supernaturalism of Daniel's new tone of voice. Then, the leader of that swarm came to the Lugia and spoke (in the Pokemon language, of course), "_I-I do…"_

And Daniel just roared loudly again and used his Safeguard to create a distorted image of his surroundings, making him even scarier.

"_And you address to me that lightly, with that coward tone of voice?! I'm incalculably furious with your pathetic attitude! You have a single opportunity to escape before I turn my wrath against your pitiable existence!"_

With that, the young Lugia's body began to glow and, even if it was just a side-effect of his Safeguard use, it scared the devil out of the Beedrills and they flew away, as fast as their dread could get them, far away from that silver demon with the shiny eyes and the glowing body.

After that, Daniel could only hear Karen's laughter, who was having a great time with her new Pokemon's prank. On the other hand, that Jack guy seemed to be as scared as the Beedrills before him. He mustn't have met a Legendary Pokemon before…

So, the Lugia just destroyed his psychic disguise and, looking much friendlier, he headed towards Jack and spoke to him. However, the young man was still in shock from his previous behavior and thought that the Lugia was there to punish them as well. He didn't want to stay longer to see how dangerous a legendary could be, so he ran away, leaving a strangely laughing Karen behind.

Daniel still tried to stop Jack's desperate runaway, but it only seemed that the more he wanted to calm him, the more he panicked, so he let him go. The other girl then stopped laughing. It seemed that her so called "perfect" date had ended up in disaster, but weirdly, she didn't care at all. After the running young man had been swallowed by the dense forest, the disappointed Lugia looked apologetically at Karen, trying to find the right words for a decent excuse. But the blonde girl seemed to have read his mind.

"Don't worry about that, the picnic was going wrong anyway! Besides, if the guy I'm dating can't trust one of my buddy Pokemon, then he doesn't deserve me. But I do have to ask: do you have any idea how this happened?"

Daniel just rolled his eyes.

"It's a very LONG story. Let's just say that Joey lost control of his pranks… I'm sure he didn't mean it…"

"… But it happened anyway… I knew it was a little too weird for Rachel to be right about something. I'm just sad he ran away like that…"

And the blonde girl just sighed deeply and bowed her head.

Daniel sure felt relieved that nothing happened between that Jack and Karen, but he could tell by her expression that she hoped to have a good date. So, what more could he do besides find a way to make his best friend feel better? He came closer to her and pushed her shoulder lightly with his head, sounding sweeter than ever.

"Come on, it was not your fault, don't be like that… Here, let me think of something that will cheer you up…"

And the Lugia just brought his wing to his chin and started thinking deeply. That made the girl raise her head a bit, expectantly. Whatever Daniel was thinking about, she knew it would be good, because he was just like the Daniel she used to know, so he would always find a way to make her smile. And not to much surprise from her part, he came up with an idea quickly, making her attention focus only on him.

"I already know what to do, but it's a surprise, so you can't ask anything! Just hop on my neck and I'll show you…"

Karen still sent him a questioning look, but she quickly realized it was all she would get from him, so she hurried to mount her favorite Pokemon and see his surprise.

Daniel took off immediately and headed to the skies above, his wings glued to his body, leaving the green forest far behind, along with the rest of the world. It was the first time Karen flew on a Pokemon besides Rachel, and the feeling was much more exciting. The Lugia didn't mind his speed and Karen had to hold on tight to him, otherwise she would be thrown off of her ride. Then, the Legendary Pokemon stopped suddenly by stretching his wings and started to fly slower, zigzagging through the fluffy cotton-like clouds, and she was able, against all odds, to watch the so long awaited flight of the Taillows and Swellows.

The flying Pokemon weren't that willing to cooperate with Daniel at first, but then he "persuaded" them with the same "smooth" techniques he used to make the Beedrills go away and the birds must have done the most elaborated acrobatics of their lives just to please the girl and the Lugia.

Sure Karen looked happier than before as she saw the elegant swallow-like Pokemon turning abruptly in the air like the whirling wind in a tornado, avoiding humongous and hurting collisions with the other Pokemon, but Daniel wasn't done yet. When he thought she had spent enough time with the birds, he dove in the cuddly clouds again and headed straight to the ocean.

As he was in an incredible speed and they were almost in the water, Karen was getting ready for a major splash and maybe a following cold due to the coolness of the water. However, the Lugia was able to change his direction as unexpectedly as the Taillows and Swellows before him and started to wander swiftly, leveled to the water, letting his tail touch its wavy mirror-like surface. Karen stared at her reflection, right next to the Lugia, and everything felt so right. The sun was now making his own way through the lazy clouds just to set on the horizon and share some of his orange brightness with the unfortunate creatures unable to fly. Little it knew that something even prettier would literally take its thunder.

Once again the Legendary Pokemon changed his route and flew up, landing finally on the cliff near Karen's house. She was very amazed at Daniel's actions, but she trusted him to surprise her in a good way, so she dismounted him and sat near the cliff's edge, gazing the horizon. The Lugia just came to her and whispered at her hear, "When everything seems stormy in your life, I believe the best way for you to feel better is to watch something stormier than your life..."

Karen was confused. What did he mean by that? She knew Lugias had the amazing power of controlling the sea and do astonishing things, but she also knew that Daniel was still very poorly-trained. Could he surprise her that much?

Anyway, the young Lugia just stood right beside the young woman and stretched his wings widely again. Karen thought he would take flight for a second time, but she was wrong. Daniel just stood there like that and something weirder began to happen.

As he opened his mouth and a new sadder version of his striking song echoed through it, a symphony so touching that would make the sun cry, the clouds light up and the whole world rotate backwards with its meaning, his eyes became suddenly opaque but bright and something else also did change. The weather.

Just like what happened whenever Monica evoked her Zap Cannon, or when Mewtwo rotated his wrist around in "Pokemon the Movie", dark, threatening rain clouds started to gather around the bizarre couple, covering the beautiful orange sun. It seemed that Daniel had learned to control the sea after all. But it wasn't over yet.

As the song went on and the gathered clouds began to roar humbly, Daniel realized that the environment was still too simple, so he made it more exciting. The Lugia leapt forward, still with his eyes shining, and dived into the water after finishing the first part of his song. What happened next, Karen didn't know exactly. But she could speculate.

She could only hear the Lugia's powerful and deep voice echoing across the water when Daniel started the second part of his song (which was actually very similar to the first, but more subtle sounding) and it had a strange effect on its surroundings. A new voice gradually merged with Daniel's: the voice of the ocean. It seemed that the Sea Guardian's song was so momentous that even made the ocean sing along with him. And that mixture of the Lugia's melancholic tune with the ocean's mysterious melody made the song ever prettier.

This new fervor joined to the symphony also touched Karen's heart profoundly, especially when the ocean got so involved that started dancing to the music too, creating building-high, breathtaking whirlpools all around their creator while the storm clouds roared louder than before, anxious to start really showing their power. The blonde had already gotten over the whole Jack incident, but Daniel wanted to finish in style, and he spared no efforts in doing it.

Once his ever-surprising song reached its climax, when the clouds couldn't hold on their power any longer, the Lugia decided it was time to reveal his surprise and leapt out of the water, on the exact moment that the shower of lightning bolts hit the earth with the sound of a rampant Gyarados. The beauty, the splendor of that moment remained engraved on Karen's memory for the rest of her life. The lightning bolt's glow contrasting against the darkness of the skies, giving a spectral and striking look to the giant whirlpools, cutting out her favorite Pokemon's silhouette across the air. The powerful warning of the dark clouds spreading through the electrically-charged atmosphere, somehow completing the mystical song of the ocean and its guardian, filling her heart with a kind of warmth she had never felt before, draining her sadness till the last drop.

And when Daniel sang alone the last and saddest part of his tune, suspended midair and completely motionless, the feeling of his sweet gift was enough to bring a tear to Karen's eyes, as well as a huge smile to her lips and the Lugia felt that every effort spent on that storm was worth it. He had gained her trust completely, he had given her the biggest proof that he was a real friend, he had won her heart back. His job was done.

When he finally stopped singing, the setting didn't change: the storm the Lugia creates goes on unless it wants it to end. And on that moment, a storm was much more appropriate than the sunset or a sparkling starry sky.

Daniel landed back on the cliff, right before his new best friend and just stared at her, waiting for any kind of reaction. Fortunately, it was the best one: the blonde young woman just threw her arms around the Lugia's long neck and squeezed it tightly, soaking his already soaked silver feathers with more salted water – her tears. The young Pokemon received the hug with a huge smile and placed his neck across her back, savoring the moment. He was ready to tell her the truth, a truth that could bring her back to his life or blow her away forever. It was hard for him to give her such bad news when finally everything was going right, but he had postponed it long enough.

"_You had better enjoy to the fullest this hug, Daniel, for it might be the last time you are together…"_ he thought to himself.

About Karen, she was through with fighting her feelings, since she realized how stupidly she had behaved. The old Daniel was gone and actually she didn't want him back. This new Daniel only served to show her that life goes on and Pokemon are much more trustworthy than humans. A Pokemon will never stab its best friend on the back.

And maybe this divergence between the thoughts of the girl and Lugia were responsible for the disaster that occurred afterwards…

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Karen's Poke Gang had been worried about their owner since Daniel left and they felt completely useless just being there. But when Rachel noticed an indistinct blur flying towards the cliff by the beach with her accurate vision, all of them rushed to the ocean. And after a series of impasses (mainly provoked by Joey and his urge to flirt with the pretty Dewgongs bathing on the beach), they finally reached the others just in time to see their hug. Sarcastic as usual, Chandler the Typhlosion turned to Rachel and whispered, "Very well, Rachel, your plan to separate Karen from Daniel worked wonders!"

"Hey, don't talk to me! If it weren't for Joey's stupid prank they were yelling at each other!" the Pidgeot answered.

"Were you talking to me?" the Furret asked when he heard his name. "Sorry, this gorgeous Bellossom just passed by and waved and you know I go crazy for flowers!"

Everyone rolled their eyes. After some seconds on which the hug went on, Monica the Ampharos spoke, "Well, I don't think we can do much more for them… What if we go back and have dinner?"

"Good idea, I'm starving!" Joey said. The best thing that gained his attention besides females was food.

"But you just ate a whole Ratatta on our way here!" Phoebe stated.

"Yeah, but that was like five minutes ago!"

And while talking about the Furret's surprisingly quick metabolism, the Pokemon headed home for dinner and left the others in their hug…

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A good twenty minutes had passed since the Poke gang left and Karen and Daniel had finally let go of their hug. The storm was now a mere shadow of the power it had before but was still very beautiful to look at. Now that the sun had discretely set completely, the only light source of the place were the lightning bolts still falling from the clouds and the Volbeats' shiny tails hidden in the forest behind them. The two young adults had been talking about everything and the Lugia was ready to bring up the so long-awaited subject.

"Thank you, Daniel, one more time, for everything you've done these last days. You've been terrific…" Karen thanked again.

"And one more time, you're welcome… You needed my help, and just like you helped me before, I tried to return you your favor," the Lugia answered.

The two exchanged a tender smile before the blonde young woman spoke again.

"You see, nothing has been really easy since I left home and came here. There were many twists in my journey, many rocks in my path…"

Daniel knew this was the perfect opportunity to finish his job.

"You left home? Where are you from then? Kanto, Hoenn?" As if he didn't know…

She just smiled a sad smile.

"I'm afraid it a little farther than that… I'm not from this world, the Pokemon World. I'm from a big city in the Real World, the Human World."

The Lugia acted surprised terribly and asked, "Really? The Human World? I've heard it was a wonderful place… Why did you leave?"

"It's a very long story…"

"We have time…"

Karen thought for a second before she went on. It was very painful to relive those memories, but maybe if she talked about them to someone they would finally go away…

"You see, in my world, people talked about Pokemon, but there weren't any. It was just a TV show and people didn't believe they existed, like Power Rangers and the sort. But I did. My obsession for Pokemon lived on even when everyone else stopped watching it. And I always believed that Pokemon existed.

"The only person that supported me with this thing was my best friend, who funnily is also called Daniel. Every time the others made fun of me, he defended me and told them to shut up. You wouldn't understand how important that was for me. If I didn't have him, I would be completely alone in that school. He was the only true friend I had… Or at least I _thought_ I had…

"One day, just like the others, I went to school and I started a huge fight with this girl that didn't believe me. She was with her group of friends, so I looked for Daniel's support. I knew he was able to shut anyone that offended me up. But he didn't support me. He stayed on her side. On his own sweet way he told me to grow up.

"There are many descriptions for the broken heart, but you'll only understand them once you feel your heart break into a million pieces. Daniel was my best friend, my only friend, I loved him so much, but he let me down on the moment I needed him the most. I ran away that day, I wanted to prove them all wrong, I wanted to show them I was right. I found this book in the library that told me the way here and I followed it. And once I got here and my life went well for once, I never wanted to go back again. I knew I was right and as long as I knew it I would be fine.

"But, oh, I miss him… Having Pokemon is great, but he was my species and understood me like no one ever had. I wish he could be here with me, I wish he could see me now, I wish I could share the beauty of this place with him: I'm sure he would love it. But he hurt me so much that no one could ever understand… If he really cared about me he would stayed with me till the end… I've got to let him go… This is my life now and he won't come back to me… He's probably gotten new friends now, friends that don't embarrass him…"

As the girl was talking, Daniel's brown eyes filled with tears, tears for knowing he had made the girl he loved suffer so when all she wanted was his love and support. The Lugia wanted to let out his tears right then, tell her he was sorry, make everything right, but he was afraid… He needed to soften her first…

"Maybe… maybe he did what he thought it was best for you… Maybe he didn't know it would hurt you this much… Maybe he was so filled with regret afterwards that he spent the next three years inside a library trying to ease his pain while digging for clues that led to you… Maybe all he wanted was a second chance to be with you again…"

When he finished talking, he stared deeply into her emerald-green eyes, hiding his tears no more, realizing how surprised she was at his sentence, tears beginning to form in her eyes too. She stared back at him, and what she saw in his eyes made her heart beat faster. How did he know about those things? As far as she knew, Lugias couldn't read minds, so there was only one explanation for him to know those things, and that theory was supported by both the color and the warmth of his eyes. He was Daniel, the Lugia was _the_ Daniel she had known and loved since she was a little girl… But she didn't know just now if it was a good or a bad thing…

Two tears became stronger than her and rolled down her cheek while she asked with a trembling voice, "D-daniel? Is… is it really you?"

The Lugia let out a couple of tears too and answered, "I'm so sorry, Karen… I didn't want to, I was so stupid… Please, please, forgive me… I've been looking for you for ages, I've missed you so much…"

"You abandoned me! I needed you and you didn't believe me! You let those girls make fun of me and you didn't even bother to apologize!" Karen interrupted him, tears now flowing uncontrollably. "Do you know now how it feels to be alone, how it feels to be sad? Have you found out how it feels to have no one to lean on? Has loneliness taken over you already? Do you know what a broken heart is?"

"Yes, Karen, and that's why I came for you… that's why I became a Lugia…"

"Did you really believe that everything would be fine just because you took the shape of my favorite Pokemon? Do you really think it would be that easy? All this time you have lied to me and it looks like it didn't change! Even here you find a way to make me feel miserable!"

And she got up suddenly, making her way home. Daniel stood up too and tried to stop her while crying and saying, "Please, believe me, Karen! If there was something… anything! … I could do… If I could live that day again… I would never…"

"You should have thought about it before you blew it up! You had your chance and time won't go back! I'm through waiting for you!"

Daniel couldn't come up to a reply to that. Karen went on, but before she left the Lugia's sight, she turned back and said one last thing, "And, by the way, I wonder if NOW you believe that I was telling the truth!"

That was the final stab to Daniel's heart and _then_ he understood what she meant by a broken heart. He was expecting something bad, but nothing quite like that… Everything was over, he would be a Lugia for the rest of his sad life… He was so miserable, so deadened, so unmotivated that not even a thousand tears could express his feelings. The world could be suffering a chaotic cataclysm without him noticing.

But the disasters weren't finished yet. As slowly as the storm he created faded away, a strange object covered the now crescent moon, coming closer. It attracted Daniel's attention and he decided to examine it more carefully with his accurate vision. When it came closer, he found out that it was a weird airship suspended by thousands of small fans that had several devices all over it. They looked like guns. The Lugia was already expecting the worst.

Inside the airship, Lawrence the Third was already grinning, sure of his success. He was even happier now he saw his Lugia was able to create massive thunderstorms. He began the capture sequence and spoke to his computer, "It is magnificent! Let's try a rapid approach to catch it. Launch the magnetic trap!"

"Yes, sir," a feminine voice said.

Then, immediately, both sides of the airship spat two squares made of wires and they started chasing the Lugia. Daniel didn't know what was going on, but it didn't look good. He spread his wings and flew away, just in time to escape the squares, which began to chase the Legendary Pokemon. Lawrence saw his struggle against his trap from the airship and remembered that last time the Lugia was able to escape it. So, he decided to be more cautious and used another technique.

"Activate the electric shocker too. I don't want to lose this one."

"Electric shocker activated."

Daniel was having some difficulties in escaping the wires, as they seemed to be cleverer than him and anticipated every move he made. But as if it wasn't enough for him to deal with, one of the guns on the airship began to move and to shoot miniature-sized lightning bolts.

"_Great…" _the Lugia thought. Now he was really in trouble, for the new gun was blocking with lightning bolts the few safe escape ways that the magnetic trap left. Daniel was still able to trick the wire squares for five more minutes, but then a lightning hit him, paralyzing him, and even though he used one last effort to yell for help, there was no hope left for him. Besides, since Karen was out of his life, there wouldn't be hope for him whatsoever.

So, the two wire squares just trapped the immobilized Lugia inside their magnetic field and carried him inside the airship. Daniel didn't struggle, he already accepted his fate, however miserable. At least it went with the way he felt.

When the magnetic jail that held him appeared right in front of Lawrence the Third after going through a long tunnel, the Pokemon collector just stared at him from head to tail, ignoring the Legendary's grief or his absence of spirit.

"_So this is how I'm going to end," _was Daniel's last thought, as Lawrence grinned greedily. _"As a living statue of a man that has everything but enjoys nothing."_

The last image he saw before closing his eyes to hibernate (A/N: I thought that was how Lugia was able to stay all that time under the sea) was Karen. The Karen he remembered before all of that happened and to whom he would gladly give his heart.

"Lock him up," Lawrence's voice echoed. "We'll be home soon…"

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**END OF CHAPTER (FINALLY!)**

So, here's the longest, scariest to write, most time-consuming chapter of this entire fic! But I guess that was mainly my fault…

I'm so sorry for taking this long to update, but the world has gone crazy on me! Tenth grade is much more difficult than I expected, I spend half my life in the library doing my homework and studying (besides hanging out with my friends, which is worth it all). My best friend has kept me pretty much occupied during these months too. He has this serious self-confidence/concentration problem and I want to be by his side, so I've been writing him inspirational letters instead of going on with my fics (please, don't blame me for that!). The problem is that nothing seems to work and it really breaks my heart to see him sad because of his own failures… Can any of you help me? How can I raise someone's self-confidence?

Anyway, I finally found the time to finish this chapter on my Christmas Break and I made it extra big for you as a late Christmas present! I really hope you like it!

I'm afraid my next updates will take some time, but I just want to ask you to be patient: I won't give up on any of these fics, so don't you give up on me.

Lastly, I want to thank you all for everything and to wish a Happy New Year to everyone!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	13. Penelope

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. If I did, I'd change the game's battle style completely. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, … I'm tired of doing this… if Friends belonged to me, I'd be a happier person…

**Author's Notes: **Hello, dear readers! Here it is: the second to last chapter of this fanfiction! Yes, this is coming to an end… Once again, I want to thank **Pwnanator **(you're welcome and you're doing a wonderful job with Karen. I've been reading your fic and I liked it very much, congratulations! For the ones who read this and are looking for a nice fic, do read Pwnanator's Prophecy of the Pokemon Healer, it's an amazing fiction! As for Karen's attitude on last chapter, you're right. She probably overreacted and Daniel couldn't be blamed for not believing her. But when you're as lonely as she is, you'll try anything to convince your only friend that you're right and you become devastated if they give up on you. Believe me, I've been through that… but it's not a bad thing to think like Daniel in chapter 1, it's completely normal. As for Pokemon's existence, of course most of them have the potential to exist. Some of them are completely based on living or extinct animals and most of their features could be found on those animals. For example, Relicanth was based on an existing fish, the coelacanth, which has lived on earth since before the dinosaurs, looks almost exactly like it and lives in the depths, just like it. Other examples are Butterfree's or Nincada's metamorphic processes or Remoraid's behavior towards Mantine (the real fish usually takes a ride on bigger animals, like sharks or rays, which happens with Mantine). Just like you said, most Pokemon have the potential to exist. Finally, the story isn't action/adventure, but romance/humor, because of Daniel and Karen's tender moments and Karen's Poke gang's sense of humor. I wondered some time about changing it, but I think it stays better this way…), **anonymous**, **Mew3692002 **(oh, you keep saying all those nice things, thank you so much… It's my job to show the world how beautiful Lugias are and I'm happy to have achieved my goal! Anyway, my friend has gotten much better, even though he sometimes has his bad days, but I believe he will be fine. I can't be always protecting him, he needs more independence and he knows I'm here when he's in trouble. Thank you for your advice and I hope you like this chapter!), **Lost Yoshi **(well, I tried my best to make it look good, but the creation of the storm was one of the hardest parts to write, I'm sorry if it didn't go well… As for Daniel's actions, what can I say, he is young and he isn't completely aware of the power he has as a Lugia. As you can see, it was the FIRST time he did something like that, so he couldn't imagine its repercussions. Teenagers are just like that: they spend little time wondering about the consequences of their actions. Finally, as for Karen's reaction, loneliness can make you overemotional about little things and, in the spur of the moment, she got angry with Daniel, even though he was there to apologize and she loved him too. As you will see on this chapter, once she has had enough time to cool down and think, she will understand she has made a terrible mistake. He had hurt her and she wanted to hurt him too. Now she will realize that maybe she went too far with it… But thank you for pointing out this question! And about my friend, he has gotten better since my last update! There's no need for more suggestions!), (I promised I wouldn't abandon this story and I like to keep my promises. That's my goal: to make you suffer with my characters. You get much more attached to them. As for my friend, it's okay, since he has gotten much better!), **dragonsrulllz **(don't worry, you'll get to read the end of this story either way!), **Foxyjosh**, **pinayangel528 **(so many reviews! I was so happy! I'm glad you liked it, I hope you also like this one and I'm so sorry for the delay…), **TwilightZone145**, **Lugia's Bestfriend**, **DarkSaga**, **anon**, **mister 8000 **and **Liydenn** for your inspirational reviews! I want to tell you you've been a big positive thing in my life. The thought that the things I write will be read and appreciated for so many people makes my day whenever I'm down. It's wonderful to write, but it wouldn't be half this fun if it weren't for you… Thanks a lot for everything and this chapter is for you: all of you that read and/or reviewed this story! I hope you enjoy it!

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**CHAPTER 13**

**PENELOPE**

That night had been terrible at Karen's house. The blonde young woman came in crying intensely and, saying nothing to no one, just sobbing convulsively, she ran to her bedroom and cried herself to a night of restless sleep. All her Pokemon watched everything with great worry and wondered what really could have gone wrong that time to turn what seemed to be a very promising evening into a great disaster. Even Joey stepped out of his usual oblivious self and asked himself why would Daniel tell everyone he would cheer up Karen when he made her this sad. They were willing to do anything to help her feel better, but the young woman wouldn't let them in, even when Monica baked her home-made breath-taking cookies. That was a clear sign that their trainer wanted to be left alone, and so the Pokemon went to sleep. However, Chandler would check up on her from time to time, just to find her sobbing between nightmares. Because of that, we can tell the night wasn't easy…

But the morning wasn't easier either. When Karen dragged herself to the kitchen near midday with puffy eyes due to her crying, unmotivated and numb, the rest of the gang was already there, curious and worried about her. They let her sit on a chair before Rachel, the most feminine Pokemon of the group, approached her and asked with a grave tone of voice, "What happened, Karen? Why are you like this and where is Daniel?"

As Monica also approached and handed her trainer a cookie, the blonde took it slowly and answered lowly, "We had an argument… And I found out that he isn't the Daniel we thought he was… and I don't care where he is now…"

The rest of the team was startled at her statement and all of them joined the two females around their trainer, eager to know more.

"What do you mean?" Chandler asked. "Daniel is part of our team, he has been a great friend, I'm sure you made a mistake. I mean, he has been worried about you ever since he…"

"He doesn't care about me!" Karen interrupted in a completely different tone of voice, losing her grip on the cookie and letting it fall to the table, breaking. "All this time he has lied to me and all along he only cared about himself! He only came to make me feel more miserable…"

And the young woman started sobbing again, bringing her hands to her eyes, feeling helpless, useless, lifeless. The Typhlosion didn't know what to say, so he looked around to seek advice from the others. However, the only thing he got in return was a furious look from Monica, who had become irritated once the fallen cookie filled the table with crumbs.

Fortunately, that decaying situation wouldn't last much longer, for a new yet familiar character entered the house (even though in very suspicious circumstances) to play an important role in solving that problem. The only thing that Karen and her Poke Gang heard before the wise old lady arrived at the kitchen was the monotonous sound of her wooden cane hitting the also wooden floor, as well as her ancient voice saying, "You are being a fool, child… A big fool, and you know that. All that boy ever cared about was you…"

And that seemed to have effect in Karen's disposition, unlike her Pokemon's attempted comforting words. Upon hearing that known voice, the girl immediately lifted her head again to face the old lady, all of her expression curious about her involvement in that matter.

"Penelope…" the blonde called out. "What are you doing here?"

However, her Pokemon felt very differently. They had never heard about that 'Penelope' and felt a little lost in that situation. So Ross, in his frontal and very unique way, approached the old lady and asked, a frown on his face, "Better else, who might you be?"

Rachel was about to slap the Togetic and tell him that a gentleman shouldn't speak like that towards a lady when she let out a chuckle and faced their trainer. "All this time and you haven't told them, dear? But I think you should now. If the entire truth is to be known today, we should start from the beginning."

With that, all the Pokemon turned their heads back to Karen with the same curious expression she had before, waiting for an answer. As for the young woman, she was feeling a bit bad for having hidden that information from her new best friends all along, but Penelope was right: it was time.

"I…" she started, "I'm not from the Pokemon World. I came from a farther land. Not Hoenn, Kanto or even Sinnoh. I came from the Real World."

Her companions came to a moment of impasse (well, Joey already was, but the others joined him). How could someone not belong there if the world was just that: Kanto, Jotho, Hoenn and Sinnoh?

"I know it sounds very weird, but it's true. There's a very different world out there, where Pokemon don't exist, nor spectacular berries, nor trainers nor Poke Centers or the Elite Four, where all of this is just a fantasy. I was born and raised there, and all my life I believed this place existed. All of my friends didn't, and made me feel miserable for that. Including my best friend of all time: Daniel…" She said the last word in a very bitter tone.

"Hey!" Joey shouted out of the blue, "I thought your best friend of all time was Marion!"

The other Pokemon shushed at the Furret and then Phoebe turned to her trainer, "Wait a second… Daniel, you mean OUR Daniel, the Lugia? How come? I knew he was some kind of extraterrestrial being!"

After those intermissions, Karen kept going, "Yes, the same Daniel, but no, he's no extraterrestrial. After he stopped believing me and humiliated me in front of everyone, I found a way to prove him wrong, a book that led me to this place, and I ran away. And Penelope helped me once I arrived, even though I don't know why. She told me what to do and how I could make my dreams come true. And then I had you and together we had all of this… And I have no idea how could Daniel come back as a Lugia, and how was he able to ruin this all for me…"

It took some time for the Pokemon to assemble all that information. It was all very weird for them and Daniel never seemed to them like a human, even though he usually had the most peculiar attitudes. However, Penelope cleared her throat, calling all the others' attention to her. She said, "And this is where I explain exactly what has happened, and this will be when you understand, Karen, the immense mistake you have just made!"

But the blonde shook her head vigorously, this time sounding a little angry. "I have made NO mistake. He wasn't there for me when I most needed him and all along pretended to be my friend. And he thought that this would change everything. He was wrong, he still is wrong… this changes nothing…"

"Don't be so self-centered, child!" the old lady retorted loudly. "All he ever did was to find the best for you, to make you feel like you belonged! He only said those things to you that day because he was afraid that you would get hurt, he was afraid of what your so-called friends would do to you! He always looked out for you and never let you fall. You kept getting yourself in the most awkward problems, and he let you out of all of them! When you vanished, he searched the entire state's libraries to look for clues that led to you! And when he eventually found the same book you took, he was willing to do whatever necessary to see you again, including risking his life and his human form forever! Daniel loved you all along, in a way that few men love, and now you've sentenced him to a life of servitude just because you couldn't see it!"

Those words hit Karen like a bucket filled with cold water or a pile of big heavy bricks, bricks that lingered in her heart and filled her with guilt. The girl didn't know how the old lady knew about all of that, but she knew she was right, only then she realized that. Now that she thought about it, she could understand all his gentle attitudes, all the smiles, kind words and even all he went through to make her that perfect storm last night…

"I came to him once he arrived at the portal, the same portal you used when you came here," Penelope went on, "He was surprised to see me there and wondered from where I knew you. But when I told him that I knew of a way to see you again, he didn't hesitate and changed into a Lugia. All this time he tried to find the best moment to apologize to you, and all this time he felt terrible for having let you go. Not to mention how sorry he felt when he knew this place was real… And when he finally got the chance, you broke his heart, and he might now be in grave danger…"

That frightened Karen and her Pokemon greatly and they waited to hear more.

"I gave Daniel the potion which transformed him into a Lugia. With it came many advantages, but also many problems. If he wasn't able to win your trust back, or if by any chance he was captured, seven days from then, he would remain a Lugia forever, and would never be able to return home ever again. Yesterday, after you left him, a very greedy Pokemon collector found him and captured him: Lawrence the Third, I believe you know him. By this time, he must be arriving at his mansion. If you get there in time, you might save your best friend or, I dare to say, the boy you most love in this world. If not, then I'm very sorry…"

"But how can I face him now?" the young woman asked in despair. "After all I did to him, how do I deserve a second chance?"

"Come on, Karen!" Rachel yelled. "We won't let you just stay here and do nothing! You have to at least try!"

"Your Pidgeot is right, child," the wise lady stated. "And to make things clear, I must tell you one final thing. I still haven't introduced myself properly. My name is Penelope Taylor and I too once lived in the Real World. I too was once humiliated by my friends and when I sought my best friend for support he too disappointed me. My problems weren't about Pokemon at the time, since the show didn't exist yet, but still they led me to run away and find this place, where I found people who understood me and where I was happy. That was why I wrote the book you and Daniel used, Karen, to help people like me to find this paradise. Few must have believed it, but you were one of the few who did and was actually able to find this place."

Karen was very surprised to hear that, but Penelope wasn't finished yet.

"However," she went on, "that wasn't the only reason why I wrote that book. My best friend, I loved him, and I was really hurt when he let me down. By writing this book, I was hoping he would use it to find me so that we could be together again. And you know what? He never looked for me and now this is all I have. You are very lucky, Karen. When I first saw you using my portal, I knew you were just like me. But with the help of my Psychic-type Pokemon, I found out that it wasn't entirely truth: you had the thing I wished I had before, a true best friend. And when Daniel came to that portal and my Slowking analyzed him, I knew that he was looking for you and I felt the need to bring you together. You have been blessed, child, with something far more marvelous than the PokeWorld itself. You have been blessed by true love. Believe me when I say that this is the only chance in your life that you'll have to grab it and believe me that you will feel worse then ever if you let it go… Go look for Daniel, Karen… Show him how much you really love him… And when you have him, never let him go again…"

The others were in complete silence, assimilating everything and finally understanding it all. But when I say the others I don't mean Joey too. Once he listened to what Penelope had to say, he strangely knew exactly what his trainer had to do. And since he saw her standing there completely motionless, the Furret shouted again, completely emotional, "What are you waiting for, Karen?! Haven't you heard the lady!? Let's go! We need to find Daniel!"

And then Karen was sure of what to do, she was certain she wanted to find her best friend, no, the man she loved the most again, and this time she wanted to be the one apologizing, and letting him know that she wouldn't want to be apart from him again. She was decided! The other Pokemon went to calm down Joey.

"That's right, Joey!" she said with a completely different tone of voice, a victorious, determined, adventurous tone of voice. "We will make this Lawrence the Third regret the day he took our Daniel away from us!"

With a pleased smile upon her wrinkled lips, Penelope nodded and, hitting her cane on the floor a little harder, she said, "The Pokemon collector lives in the mainland, far away to the north, in a big mansion near Blackthorn City. You can get there within the week, but you'll need to be flying." The old lady patted the female Pidgeot, who peeped proudly. "I believe you can do it, Karen, and I'll pray that your journey will be a safe one. May Mew guide your way in this new adventure!"

The blonde nodded too after listening to the elderly woman with great attention. She then rounded up her friends and said with her characteristic lively voice, "Listen up, guys! It seems we'll need to leave home for an undetermined period of time to bring back one of our own! I just need to know one thing, are you with me?" She stretched her right hand towards the center of the circle that group formed.

The Pokemon also put their right wing/paw/hand on top of their trainer's (except Ross, who was just too little to reach them and kept jumping frenetically) and yelled all in unison, "YEAH!!"

And so, with a huge smile on her lips and a great will to see Daniel soon inside her heart, Karen filled a backpack with supplies, fetched a tent and her PokeBall belt, so that they would be ready for their new adventure. Reluctantly, she called all her Pokemon back to those red and white balls and attached them carefully to her belt, facing Penelope afterwards.

"I'm so sorry for almost ruining your plan, and I'm very thankful that you brought Daniel back into my life. I just hope not to let you down now…" the blonde said.

Placing a hand on the other's shoulder, the old lady merely said, "You won't, child. You have Daniel's same love brewing like fire inside your heart and that pure love won't let you fail. Now off you go. You have only six days left to get to him…"

Karen nodded and headed for the exit, letting Rachel out of her PokeBall, since she needed to get there flying, and climbing to between her wings. However, right before the two of them took off, the trainer looked back and shouted, "Penelope, if you see Marion, please do tell her to take care of the house while I'm gone. Tell her that I'll compensate her when I come back!"

The old lady merely nodded and waved, watching the Pidgeot flapping her wings to head toward the skies, toward the place where the Lugia who was once a boy was.

All of them knew it wouldn't be easy to bring Daniel back, but all of them were determined to give it a try.

Karen just hoped she wouldn't be too late…

--------------------------------------------------------------

As for the Lugia, he had just arrived to the mansion in his magnetic prison, followed closely by the cold Pokemon collector. With the help of one of the many machines filling that place, Daniel was put inside a completely enclosed cell, and an immense group of dangerous Pokemon was guarding him.

The legendary Pokemon couldn't understand the reason for all that trouble, though. It wasn't like he was going to try to escape or anything. He had nothing left now, so he had accepted his sad fate.

However, Lawrence didn't think the same way. While making sure the Lugia had no chance to escape, he called out the most powerful Pokemon he had there.

"Alaina!" he shouted. A huge female Feraligatr came immediately. She did seem capable of overthrowing even a massive Dragonite. She merely said her species' name when she arrived there.

"I want you and your friends to keep a close eye on this one. And I won't accept any intruders here. If anyone shall enter, you shall deal with this situation harshly. I won't lose this one, am I clear?"

The Feraligatr merely nodded and called other Pokemon in the likes of Dragonites, Rhydons and even a Tyranitar. She still seemed scarier than them, though. She growled some orders in the Pokemon language (which Daniel understood in his condition) and the others were dismissed.

The Lugia didn't care much about it, though. He was already doomed, even without that terrible guard.

"I hope that at least you're happy now, Karen…" was Daniel's last thought. 

---------------------------------------------------------

END OF CHAPTER 

Weeee! I really finished this!

Ooof, ah well…

I'm so sorry for taking this long and this time is totally my fault, even though school had been hell on those damned final months!

Anyway, this time, since I'm already in summer vacations, I promise the next update will come sooner, and you know what, it'll already be the last chapter, so you won't have to wait for me again!

I really, really hope this makes up for the six-month (was it really that long?) delay…

As for my friend, he's already good and so I won't be needing any more advice! Thanks to all who helped me before!

I really hope you have enjoyed this and once again I'm sorry for updating so late…

See ya next and last chapter!

kathlaida-princess logging out…


	14. A New Beginning

* * *

THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA

**THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA**

**By kathlaida-princess**

**Summary**: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.

With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!

I sure hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. If I did, I'd change the game's battle style completely. And I don't own Friends either. If Friends belonged to me, … I'm tired of doing this… if Friends belonged to me, I'd be a happier person…

**Author's Notes: **Hello, dear readers! So, here we are, with the last chapter of this fanfiction! It was a wonderful year dedicated to this and I'm very happy knowing that I'll be writing the words 'THE END' in this story soon! It's my true hope that you have enjoyed reading this as much as I loved writing it, and I really hope you like how this story ends!

Anyway, once again, thank you **Liydenn **(well, I wouldn't consider Penelope neither a deus ex machina or a plot voucher since she is a perfectly normal and human character, but I guess I didn't do it right and I'm sorry for that… I hope that maybe the ending of this story will make things clearer. Penelope is one of my favorite characters here. Thank you for the compliment though and I'm sure you're as good as I am!), **Foxyjosh **(er, his name is Daniel xD, but thank you for the review anyways!), **Pwnanator **(hey, don't say that, you write Karen wonderfully too, as well as baby Chandler, and I hope you update your own fic soon! I would love to know more about those ideas, and I promise I won't be like Karen and spread them across the seven winds ;) Finally, Organization 13 does rock, and Xigbar is loads of fun too! Thank you for the BIG review!), **pinayangel528 **(aww, thank you so much…), **Lugia's Bestfriend **(reviews are always inspirational, they make us know that our writing is appreciated and that is enough to make us want to write more! I hope you like this final chapter!), **gible-girl **(yeah, I added some of the Sinnoh Pokemon in this chapter and I have this feeling I added one in the last one too… Ah well, thanks for reviewing and no problem!), **Zephyter0** (I'm really glad you think that way! Thank you!), **Jolteon Master** (yeah, I do have to be more careful about the mistakes (being Portuguese and all)... About the Friends thing, I tried to improve that in this chapter, I hope you like it! As for other works, there are some right here on , just go to my main page. Other than that, I'm afraid I don't have any other works. I keep a journal on dA and LiveJournal too (I'll send you a PM if you're interested), but they're really short texts about the problems of the world. I'm working on writing more, or at least on having the chance to do so... Anyway, thanks a lot for your review, it made my day!), **seven interrogation marks** (I'm such a bad person for not updating soon :( sorry and I hope this is worth it!), **HaloEver**, **ArigahWRITER **(thank you so much!),** dragonsrullllz**,** Miloctra **(and I'm really glad you think reading this was worth it :) Here's the final chapter, I hope it's not disappointing...) and **Flipper Boid Skua **(your review did make a difference and I found myself remembering yours and others to keep on writing. Thank you so much for it and it's my great desire that you like this final chapter!) for reviewing the other chapter, and I really hope you like this final one!

I have nothing else to say…

On with the story!

**FINAL CHAPTER**

**CHAPTER 14**

**A NEW BEGINNING**

Oh, how wonderful it felt to be back on an adventure, even though she was scared and so much was at stake… How wonderful it felt to have her long blond hair being whipped by the rushing wind, although she knew she was headed towards danger... But, most of all, how wonderful it felt to have her heart beat faster with a possible love, even though the possibility of failure haunted her every move…

Five days had passed since Karen and her PokeTeam spoke to Penelope, and the seven of them were sure to be close to Lawrence the Third's mansion. They had travelled all across the Johto region, through mountains, forests, rivers and lakes, always north. They would always camp at night in some forest, to let Rachel rest from an entire day of flight and to let Karen make sure they were going in the right direction. Ross would set up the tents (with great aid of his psychic powers of course), Chandler would hunt down a big Buneary or Pikachu (A/N: ah, ah, I'm so mean to Pikachus, only, because I love Bunearies!!) for all of them to eat (except Phoebe, who was a strict vegetarian) and Monica would cook them on the fire. Phoebe would Sing for Rachel and Karen for them to sleep better and Joey… well… Joey was there for emotional support (even though Ross couldn't understand how just standing outside the big tent could be supportive…)! Everything was done in the greatest haste (although still with perfection) since there wasn't a minute to waste.

Now, still riding her Pidgeot and with the rest of her gang resting inside their constricted PokeBalls, Karen could see the outlines of Blackthorn City further away, the severe silhouette of the mountains making an intense contrast with the clear blue of the sky. Good, this was now the last day before Daniel became a Lugia forever and the blonde still needed a plan to break into the mansion.

But with Rachel's elegant swiftness, it took them little time to reach the city per say, and as soon as the big mansion outside it became visible, the Bird-type said, "We're almost there now… And we had better think of a plan soon…"

It was unusual, seeing Rachel talking about plans, but too much was at stake now and the Pidgeot was willing to do anything to prove Karen they could do it, that she would be happy. The young woman merely nodded, asking the big bird to land near a big group of pine trees (which reminded her particularly of home).

After stretching, Karen released the rest of her Pokemon from their red and white prisons, while Rachel took flight again, under her trainer's orders.

"Argh…" Ross interjected. "I wish I was bigger so that I could carry you, Karen… I hate traveling by PokeBall…"

Chandler, the biggest of the present, retorted, "Now YOU are complaining?"

The blonde chuckled at the Typhlosion's comment, feeling a bit guilty for having to make them go through all of that with her, but after she stroke his bluish fur apologetically once, she spoke, "Yeah, I'm sorry guys, but hey, we're here already!" The five Pokemon turned their heads to the nearby mansion and saw it was true. I mean, four of them looked at the big house, while Joey still wondered what Karen meant with 'here'.

It really was a magnificent building. From their hideout, the group wasn't able to see much detail, but the front of the mansion alone could let them know that this wouldn't be an easy adventure…

It was a building made from white, sturdy stone, extremely decorated with arches, huge windows and countless statues of ferocious Pokemon, Pokemon famous for the power they imposed on others. The front door was as tall as a stretched Gyarados and it was made from dark wood. The mansion was enclosed in a beautiful and very well-treated garden, under the constant watch of several guards, human and Pokemon alike. Finally, the set mansion-garden was surrounded by an impassable yet rather pretty and tall railing, making the 'coming-in-without-being-seen' impossible. It really wouldn't be an easy adventure…

And the news Rachel brought with her from her flight did nothing to help their motivation…

"This place is stuffed to the core with guards!" she exclaimed. "But not regular guards, like those losers we were used to a couple of years ago… Believe me, this was the biggest group of really rare Pokemon I've seen in my entire life and they don't seem very friendly either… We'd better think this through carefully before we try anything…"

And as the others drooped at the Pidgeot's words, sensing that they wouldn't be able to do much to rescue their newest member, Monica wasn't ready to let anyone else besides 'HER TEAM' win. She spoke passionately, with fire in her heart and excited sparks on her bee-like ears, ready to lift the group's morale.

"Oh, come on!" she almost screamed, startling her audience. "Don't tell me that you're scared of a lousy piece of metal passing for a fence or even a bunch of mindless tough gorillas pretending to guard something! Do I have to remind you who WE are?!"

The rest of the Poke-gang didn't dare to say a word, afraid of bringing a greater storm to themselves. The Ampharos carried on.

"I will tell you who we are! We are the only Poke-Team in the entire Poke World who can SPEAK to their trainer! We are the youngest, less-experienced team in half a century to have beaten the Elite Four and everything that comes with it! We traveled, we explored, we learned, we fought, we surpassed the most difficult obstacles and in the end we won! We won even when everything seemed lost, just because we stayed together and stood strong! And if success graced us in all those hard times of the past, I can assure you it will also grace us right now! Today, we will fight like the united team we are and I promise that by the end of the day this woman," Monica pointed to Karen, "who made all the good things in our lives possible, will be having her happy ending with the boy she loves the most in this world!"

By the end of her speech, the Electric-type had a vivid aura of sparks around her head, which made her words even more powerful. The other 'mons, who had been listening in sheer silence with all the attention they could pay (even Joey), looked at each other and then faced Monica with a broad smile, raising their hands and paws to the air in a fearsome 'HURRAY!!'. After that, Chandler the Typhlosion merely threw himself at the Ampharos in a big hug, saying aloud proudly, "THIS IS MY GIRL!" And after some awkward and silent moments (in which Monica sent Chandler several of her deathly glares), the team began planning their way in!

Ross was the first one to think. He picked up a twig from the ground and started using it to make some strategic drawings: of the mansion, of the fence, of the garden and, finally, of the path they would walk.

And as the little Togetic worked on his 'art' surrounded by the others, Karen approached Monica and said, an emotive smile upon her lips, "Thank you for that. I'm really glad we are like this..."

The Ampharos smiled too and placed a fingerless hand on her trainer's shoulder. "It's not just the craving for victory, you know? I really want you to be happy with Daniel, since he's a good boy and all, and all of us will make that craving a reality!"

The smiling blonde young woman nodded and patted Monica kindly before the two of them joined the rest of the group.

After about fifteen minutes of brainstorming, a plan was successfully conceived and Ross was now reviewing it, making sure every one of them knew where they were supposed to be.

"We are here," the Togetic said, pointing with his twig to where the front of the mansion was on the picture. "All of us will be going there," he traced a line to the back to the mansion, "and then..."

"I'll Dig a tunnel under the fence, so that we can go inside," Joey promptly replied, surprising everyone. When his trainer's happiness was at stake, he would find memory and wit in the most recondite places of his mind.

Ross nodded, "Exactly. All of us will go through the tunnel and after Phoebe Sings, we will break in three groups. Joey and Phoebe..."

"We will go left, find a way in without being spotted by the guards, because Rachel says she has seen a door, and just keep going until we find Daniel," the Wigglytuff said this time. "And if we fail, Joey and I will create some... distraction." At these words, both Phoebe and the Furret grinned mischievously.

Ross rolled his eyes and carried on, "Me and Rachel will be going to the right. We'll do the same as Phoebe and Joey, but instead of diverting the guards we will be opening the way for the last group. Karen, Monica and Chandler..."

This time, the trainer spoke, "We will sneak in from the back door. We will make our way to Daniel without distractions because the other two groups took care of that for us. We will free Daniel and then wait for you."

"Very well," the little fairy Pokemon said. He was now floating in midair, centering everyone's attention in him. "Now, we know nothing about what we might find inside, so we have to be really careful. If any of us shall fail... well... Just make sure you do everything you can to get out of any tight situations! And if all of us fail... we'll end up together and that will be enough to get us through anything!"

Agreement whispers erupted from the small crowd and Ross ended that conversation by handing a strange, furry object to each one of them, which looked a lot like a hairy pair of headphones.

"Hum, since Phoebe will be Singing to the guards and it will be best if we are awake to complete our mission I got these for every one of us to wear. They were specially designed to block only the sleep-inducing notes of Phoebe's song. Do not forget to put them on!" Ross explained.

After this, the nervous Karen spoke. It was time... "Well, let's do our best! May Celebi be with us..."

And, with this, the six Pokemon followed by their human companion scurried to the back to the mansion, imperceptible to the many guards strolling on the other side of the fence...

* * *

But not imperceptible to Lawrence the Third. In his detailed plan, Ross completely forgot the many hidden security cameras surrounding the building, serving as the collector's many secondary eyes. And he was now looking through them at the machinery room, a mean smile playing on his mouth as he watched that glorious group trying to stain the reputation of his impenetrable house.

He considered calling Alaina and her group (or even any other element of his security) but then decided he wanted to have some fun. The girl and her Pokemon could try, but there was no way they could pass by his security and get to the Lugia. First there was the guards outside, the fake doors on the walls, the real doors carefully locked. Then, if they by some miracle managed to enter, they'd be on the main room of the mansion, with many more guards awaiting them. They wouldn't be able to reach the basement of the building, and even if they did, they'd face an endless maze of cages, corridors and doors and they'd be driven crazy with the sound of the many rare (and not so rare) Pokemon he kept there. They would never reach the Lugia, carefully enclosed in his unbreakable glass cell, impotent and emotionless.

Lawrence was grinning now, sitting back comfortably on his chair, curious to watch Karen's humiliation. Still, a mechanical female voice was heard, asking, "Shall I get rid of the intruders, sir?"

"No, not yet," the collector replied to the computer. "Let's first enjoy the show."

* * *

In the meanwhile, Joey the Furret was now taking care of the first step of their plan. The tunnel was now reaching its destination with an amazing speed and it soon erupted from the carefully cared grass of the garden. Nodding enthusiastically, Ross sent Phoebe forward, whispering, "Remember, you'll have to Sing loudly, all of them need to fall asleep. The rest of you, put on those earmuffs!"

'Mons and human alike wore the fluffy headphones while the Wigglytuff crossed the tunnel to the other side. But she was forced to stop in midway... because she got stuck.

Joey used Strength to pull her, the rest of them used all their might to push her, but still the pink one wouldn't budge. The irritated Ross was about to lose his temper when Chandler had an idea (although he wasn't too enthusiastic about it).

"I don't care!" the Togetic exploded. "Just take her out of there!"

And the Typhlosion did so, throwing the most powerful Dynamicpunch he could come up with. The Wigglytuff successfully crossed to the other side too, her behind hurting a lot though. The rest of the team (except Rachel) went through the tunnel as well, some of them still giggling at the incident and Ross much calmer.

Following the plan, Phoebe Sang out loud, and as soon as every standing guard crashed down on the ground, the Poke Gang split in three and carried on their mission.

Let's follow Joey and Phoebe first.

These two went left (although Joey firstly motioned to go right, before Phoebe held his arm and squealed, "Not that left!") and immediately started examining the broad wall in front of them, looking for a way in. They sometimes tripped over the sleeping bodies on the ground, but the guards weren't bothered one bit, and so the Wigglytuff and the Furret went on with their search.

But the door Rachel said she saw was a fake one, it was nothing but a very realistic painting on the stone wall... Disappointed, the couple carried onto plan B: distraction maneuvers.

Phoebe and Joey started wiggling their arms like crazy, jumping wildly in front of the big windows and making the most stupid noises. Of course the guards inside saw them, and they immediately took action, flooding the garden in furious hordes. And since Lawrence hadn't told them anything, they didn't know it was a trap.

With a devious smile plastered on their faces, both the Furret and the Wigglytuff took on the approaching guards with relative ease, astounding attack after astounding attack.

Diversion was created.

As for Ross and Rachel, they hid for a while and then went right after the many guards left the mansion going after their mischievous friends.

And though the two Flying-types searched thoroughly, they weren't able to find a viable way in either, so they were pretty much stuck.

Rachel, in a mocking mood and a soft tone, said to Ross, her wings folded across her bird chest, "How can this be possible? I mean, you had a sketch!"

The Togetic sent her one death glare (which creepily resembled on of Monica's) and thought about another way to get inside. A solution did hit him after a few minutes and the little Pokemon promptly asked the Pidgeot to hold onto him before saying, "This might take a while... But don't let go of me and be patient."

The bird, clueless about what Ross was talking about, merely rolled her eyes and wrapped one tip of her wing around one of his legs, waiting.

Ross then began waving his arms in rhythm, in a way that could only mean... "Metronome?" Rachel asked. "What in Darkrai's name are you trying to do?"

"I think I told you to be patient!" he simply replied, carrying on.

But this Metronome was transformed into a very powerful Flamethrower, with no use whatsoever.

"Oh, I see... You're trying to set the house on fire..."

"Will you just shut up?!" Ross cried out, giving it one more try...

... Which became a Howl...

And before Rachel could comment on that failure, the Togetic tried still one more time, this time getting what he wanted: a Teleport.

But the truth is Ross had never seen the cage room before, so he merely thought about Daniel... This wasn't enough to bring this couple to the Lugia himself, but after the Teleport they found themselves in a different room inside the mansion, which they later found out to be the room just before the one Daniel was in.

In front of them was a door that read 'The Pokémon Room' and the two hurried to it.

But they weren't alone...

And as Ross leaped up to touch the handle, his chubby arm suffered a violent burn, for the metallic object was really, really hot, making him scream out loud in pain.

Rachel surprisingly came to his aid, but then a voice from behind them was heard, someone (or something) speaking in the Pokemon language...

We're terribly sorry, but someone from your group already entered that room and we're not about to make the same mistake again...

Someone else? Karen? Ross and Rachel turned around to find an answer to these questions and once they did, they came upon a unique sight: a small Eevee surrounded by seven other Pokemon, his seven possible evolutions... The two Flying-types faced their opponents (noticing that the Flareon still had a small flame sprouting from his smiling mouth) and, side-by-side, prepared for battle.

The little Eevee, who had a very tough personality, spoke again, We are the Eeveevolutions and we shall give you hell!! First battalion! Attack!!

Two slender Pokemon immediately jumped forward. One was ice-blue in color, with a strangely lozenge-shaped tail and two long appendices almost covering its furious face. The other one was mostly cream in color, with a long leaf for a tail as well as one coming out of its forehead. Glaceon and Leafeon.

"Have you ever seen these guys before?" Rachel whispered to her companion.

"Not really..." Ross replied in the same tone. "But who cares, we'll fight them anyway."

And with this the Pidgeot nodded and took the first step. With her broad wings, she created a massive wave of air and threw it to the Leafeon, who couldn't move in surprise and instantly fainted once the Wing Attack hit it, falling flat on the floor.

Rachel smiled, "This was it?"

But at the sight of his fallen partner, the Glaceon went crazy, beginning to show his true powers. Ice spikes after ice spikes left his mouth towards the Pidgeot as the ice-eon pursued her. Rachel was now regretting her actions and was hoping that Ross could find a way to help her, because the Glaceon proved to be quite the fast one.

But Ross had to think for a while before finding a way to beat him.

"Try to stall him, Rachel, keep him right there!" he asked. "I have an idea!"

"Just hurry up already!" she furiously replied, dodging several ice spikes that stitched themselves on the wall.

And that was Ross's idea exactly. Trying to keep up with the Glaceon's speed, the Togetic climbed the ice spikes craved on the walls as if they were stairs, almost reaching the ceiling like this. From his perch, he jumped, managing to land on the back of the fox-like Pokemon while waving his arms in a Metronome. Holding onto the Glaceon tightly, Ross Overheated, which was enough to hit his opponent with his weakness and make him faint.

Ross and Rachel victoriously stood side-by-side again after these two defeated, but the battle wasn't over.

There was a bit of irritation on the Eevee's voice when it sent forward the, Second battalion! Now!!

This time, the two Pokemon were black and purple respectively, one of them with long rabbit ears and the other resembling a cat in almost every aspect. Umbreon and Espeon. The Pidgeot and the Togetic had already had much experience with those species, so confrontations were fast to begin.

This battle was chaotic. Ross tried to surprise the Espeon with Psychic powers similar to his opponent's and Rachel did her best to hit the Umbreon with a Fly, but the two 'eons were so much faster. And they kept throwing their own powerful attacks, hurting the two Flying-types quite a bit.

Things were going on so quickly that it was difficult to accompany their movement even to the 'audience'. The Pidgeot was already tired of this and had come up with a brilliant plan. She used the chance to tell it the Togetic when it came and preparations were soon made.

Ross and Rachel came to the middle of the chamber and stopped there, a few feet apart and facing their backs to each other, tired and almost defeated. Seeing this, the Umbreon and Espeon slowed down too, deciding to make one final attack. The two of them ran forward, Headbutt on their minds.

And this was what the other two were expecting exactly. Coming closer to each other, Togetic and Pidgeot waited until the two 'eons were almost hitting them, then they leapt up and flew away. The Umbreon and the Espeon obviously crashed, knocking each other out.

This time, the two Flying-types hugged in midair when the Eevee spoke one more time, visibly not happy with the situation, Third battalion! FINISH THEM OFF!!

And the three original evolutions of Eevee were the last to come forward. The orange and yellow fluffy Flareon, the blue and finned mermaid-like Vaporeon and the yellow electrical Jolteon. And as soon as they moved across the room, Ross found a way to defeat the first one.

Waving his arms for the last time, the Togetic got a Steel Wing from his Metronome. The Jolteon was coming after him, so he did what popped into his mind first: when the Vaporeon was running by, he touched his forehead with one hardened wing while the other one was pointing up. That way, the Thunder coming from the Electric-type was attracted to the Togetic's wing and hit the Water-type instead, rendering him automatically unconscious.

But even with a fallen companion, the Jolteon didn't give up, sending a second wave of lightning bolts. This one did hit Ross and paralyzed him, and Rachel got really worried about him. Having stopped chasing the Flareon, she went to check on the Togetic right away, sad to see him like this and angry with the ones who hurt him.

And anger was the most powerful emotion in her mind when she faced the two remaining Eeveevolutions with fire in her eyes, knocking them out with the strongest Return she had ever performed. The humongous energy wave caught the Jolteon and the Flareon by surprise and left them with not even one drop of strength in their bodies.

And after this, the Pidgeot did return to her companion, when the last opponent came: the little Eevee itself.

You may have destroyed my soldiers, but I guarantee you won't be awake to see the end of this adventure!

Rachel, who had calmed down a bit, became angry again, slapping the small fox-mon with one of her wings. The Eevee remained motionless for several seconds and then he suddenly began crying desperately. Ross was now recovered from his paralysis and watched the whole scene with a surprised expression.

And he was about to tell the Pidgeot that she had been really rude when the little Eevee Body Slammed the two of them.

It was now the Togetic's turn to become infuriated, but that usually had a side-effect on the fairy-mon. And Rachel was completely aware of it when she saw her friend become redder and redder by the second.

"Oh no..." she whispered. "It's the Red Ross!"

And it was the Red Ross indeed! Now as red as Vulpix tail, the Togetic faced the Eevee (who seemed now more scared than ever) and finished the Eeveevolutions Gang once and for all, with an anger-powered Headbutt. Needless to say that the little one fainted like his evolutions, leaving the path to the cage room and to Daniel opened.

As for Rachel, she merely smiled at the now calm Ross while bringing a wing to the side of her head. "Unagi," she said, and this was the first time she truly complimented the Togetic.

Finally, we'll check the third group out.

Monica, Chandler and Karen hid longer than the second group to move forward, and by the time they crossed the back door into the mansion there were no guards left (all of them were fighting Joey and Phoebe).

That way (and with the valuable aid of a map on the wall), this group quickly found their way down to the basement. They got there before Ross and Rachel did and so the Eeveevolutions Gang didn't notice them.

After taking a deep breath, Karen held the handle to the door that read 'The Pokemon Room' and turned it, beckoning the others to follow her.

And the cage room was exactly like they imagined: gigantic, filled to the brim with cages, aviaries and aquariums and impossible to cross without someone's help. And the girl and her friends had to find the boy she loved all by themselves.

* * *

But a massive Feraligatr already noticed that intruders had entered the cage room, and she promptly reported this to her boss through a high-tech translator.

Lawrence the Third, who amusedly sipped on his glass of champagne, was quite surprised to know the girl had gotten that far and decided it was soon time to act.

"Wait for me before we face the girl, Alaina," he ordered. "Let's let her taste victory before we take everything away from her..."

With this, the crocodile-mon retreated her own troops, awaiting further orders.

* * *

It wasn't easy for the girl, the Typhlosion and the Ampharos to find their way to the Lugia, especially with the chattering of all those imprisoned Pokemon and the complicate maze those cages seem to make. But when there's a will there's a way and Karen's heart was her strongest will. And it was right over Daniel's chest.

Because of that and after many wrong turns and endless dead ends, the final group finally found the Sea Guardian, behind a cell made from the thickest glass they had ever seen.

"Oh Daniel..."

The blonde immediately threw herself forward, happy to see that the Lugia was unharmed. But Daniel remained motionless and emotionless, although he seemed a bit surprised to see her there.

Karen placed a hand over the glass, trying to understand what was happening. But the boy she loved wouldn't budge... The young woman was now afraid to have hurt him beyond anything in their last encounter and went through her mind furiously, wanting to find the words to make everything okay again.

But time wasn't much... Steps began echoing across the floor and Chandler and Monica readied for battle.

"We've got company," the Ampharos stated.

* * *

After that difficult battle won, Ross and Rachel crossed the door to the cage room too, facing this new challenge in awe. But besides the Pokemon noises there's a familiar sound coming from far away: the sound of their friends in battle.

* * *

One last Cut made the last guard fall to the ground and Joey and Phoebe's distraction maneuver was complete. With the same devious smile, the two complimented each other's effort, before noticing they have a bigger mission to accomplish.

Furret and Wigglytuff go to the back of the garden and enter the building, they too making their way to the basement. The two Normal-types consider the fallen 'eons on the floor and nod in agreement.

"They've been here already," Joey stated.

Then, the two of them enter 'the Pokemon room' too, finding Ross and Rachel there.

"No time to chat!" Rachel says. "Our friends need us!"

And with this the four of them move forward, following Monica, Chandler and Karen's tracks.

* * *

"We've got company," the Ampharos stated.

And she was right, for the corridor in front of them was now filled with more of those infamous guards. Rhydons, Tyranitars, Flygons, Dragonites and Salamences, all of them feral, brutal, unfriendly. Alaina and Lawrence were behind the horde, watching everything but unseen to our heroes.

But at that very moment, Karen's Poke Gang was reunited, for Ross, Rachel, Phoebe and Joey had just arrived.

"We hope we're not too late..." the Wigglytuff said.

"No, you were just in time for the party," Chandler replied.

And the party was about to begin, as soon as Alaina barked her orders. But someone in Karen's group caught the Feraligatr's attention... Chandler the Typhlosion himself.

The massive crocodile forced her way between her troops to everyone's surprise. Lawrence didn't know what she was doing either, but he trusted it was the right thing. And when Alaina stood before the Fire-type Pokémon, all ten feet of her, Chandler immediately recognized her.

Well, well... if it isn't fire-boy, she said, in Pokemon.

"Alaina..." the Typhlosion muttered.

Monica, surprised at this discovery, approached her boyfriend and asked in a whisper, "You know this... woman?"

Chandler nodded in agreement. He did know her... from a long time ago.

The facts were these: the Cyndaquil and Totodile Chandler and Alaina once were had been raised by the same breeder, a very nice man who had seen them hatch and treated them with the greatest care. But instead of having a regular growth like the Cyndaquil did, Alaina grew at a much scarier rhythm, which allied to her impish nature soon became too much for the breeder to handle. Unfortunately, he had to give up on her when she (impressively quickly) evolved to a Croconaw, but he was always sad because of his decision...

When that guy abandoned me, I was found by this Pokémon collector, the Feraligatr explained. He took me in and made me see all my true potential, he turned me into what I am today. It's a funny coincidence we meet here today... Let's see how life has treated you...

And without further notice, a thick spray of water shot from the crocodile's mouth, aiming for the Typhlosion.

Chandler reacted faster than ever, immediately summoning a sphere of powerful flames around his entire body, strong enough to evaporate the entire Hydro Pump directed at him. All that was left there was an incredible amount of steam.

Hum, it seems you have learned some tricks too... Alaina stated, slightly frustrated. She then turned to her troops watching the scene and barked, Don't be just standing there, attack the others! I'll deal with this one personally...

And the chaos of battle sprung again in that mansion.

The Typhlosion and Feraligatr were locked in a furious combat, a hectic dance of fire and water, attack and defense, swift movement followed by its swift reaction. The Water-type was much bigger than the Fire-mon, but still Chandler held on tight, countering her water with powerful flames, fervent auras, cunning intelligence. Alaina had also her Water Sport readied, a beautiful sphere of drops protecting her, but she still hadn't been able to hit her foe with her Hydro Pump... The Feraligatr would sometimes cheat, unnoticeably asking a nearby guard for dishonest help, but Monica the Ampharos was always there, taking care of that guard with some of her own moves.

The rest of the set was as chaotic. Each one of the previous groups (except for Monica, who was aiding Chandler) was a dynamic battle centre, allowing guards to come forth almost periodically just to finish them off with their outstanding combo attacks. If the situation weren't that serious, they'd surely be having fun.

And Karen was the living proof of how difficult that situation was, for she was now with both hands over the thick glass trying to bring Daniel back to his senses, but the Lugia remained silent and still, once in a while lifting a sorrow-filled gaze to the blonde young woman. The trainer herself was about to cry.

"Please, Daniel, I'm so sorry for everything... I never meant to say those things to you, after you came all this way for me... Please forgive me, let me take you home..." she pleaded.

Silence... Two tears rolled down her cheek and she carried on, not wanting to know what would happen if she gave up.

But time kept going and her Pokemon companions continued their wonderful job defeating the guards without much fuss. And Chandler's battle with Alaina evolved.

At a moment of less care, the Feraligatr was able to hit the other one with a particularly powerful Hydro Pump, smiling wryly in success. But said smile was not justified, for the Typhlosion merely shook the water off his wet body in a very dog-like manner, completely unaffected. It was his turn to smile now. "Didn't I mention water does me no harm?" he said. All those swimming lessons proved to be useful.

At this, the crocodile remained still, not knowing what else to do, which gave Chandler the opportunity to end that battle. It's true some are unharmed by water, but even a powerful Water-type will suffer with a well-chosen fire attack.

With this in mind, the Typhlosion summoned yet another sphere of flames around him, using the attack that had inspired the Lugia before and led to his victory on the entire Poke Gang. Chandler's Overheat was so intense that its heat wave not only knocked Alaina out but also overwhelmed some of the guards around them.

And when their massive leader fell to the floor with a thunderous sound, the remaining guards faced the tragedy, left completely disorientated. Karen's companions used this chance to rest, but that wasn't over yet.

"Enough!" an extremely irritated Lawrence roared, coming out of his hiding spot. The chaos instantly ended. "You coming here was quite entertaining and you do have some impressive techniques, but I'm already through with it. It's now time to stop you."

The Pokemon collector clapped his hands twice and six devices were shot from one strange machine nearby. Those were magnetic handcuffs and they locked themselves around all of Karen's Pokemon's wrists without giving them a chance to retaliate. The last guards gathered them all in the centre while Lawrence spoke to Karen.

"You had some nerve barging into my house uninvited. And wanting to take my most precious belonging! I deal harshly with these situations."

And the brave Chandler spoke now, "Don't you dare lay one finger on our friend!"

And the human faced the Typhlosion, his eyes widened. "Oh yes, I forgot about the talking Pokemon! Once I've taken care of your 'friend', you shall make a lovely addition to my collection. You..." Lawrence pointed to a Rhydon, "finish the girl off."

Several muffled 'no's could be heard from the Pokemon's group, but still the grey giant moved towards the girl with her back to the thick glass, still awaiting a reaction from the Lugia inside. But nothing happened as the Rock-type put one ugly hand around Karen's neck and closing the other one in preparation of a heavy punch.

The crying young woman, having nothing to lose, whispered one last thing to Daniel.

"You are so silly, can't you see that I love you?"

And this sentence alone made all the difference.

Those words were more beautiful than music to the Sea Guardian's ears, who finally understood that the girl hadn't come there out of guilt or regret, but out of the same love that filled the shards of his broken heart, the love that would free him from that body and would allow them to be happy together. But Daniel might have understood that a little too late, although there was no place in his mind that admitted it. He too stretched his reflexes to the maximum to find a way out of that cage before the Rhydon outside hurt his best friend and with that something amazing happened.

A ball of raw energy began growing inside his now opened mouth, with several separated light beams coming out of it. As he focused and put all effort on this last hope, all the light beams converged into one truly powerful one, allowing the Lugia to use his most characteristic attack for the very first time: Aeroblast.

And the energy ray broke a huge hole through the glass in perfect timing, making the Rhydon take several steps back without hurting Karen.

Now that he was free and was facing her, there were many things Daniel wanted to tell the girl right now, so many beautiful words describing such wonderful feelings, but time was little and that amazing group had to escape first.

Karen automatically called her friends back to their PokeBalls, leaving only the magnetic handcuffs on the floor they once were, and quickly climbed onto the Lugia's neck after giving him a one-second-long hug.

"Do you have a plan to get us out of here?" the blonde asked.

"Not really, I'll improvise as we move on," the Sea Guardian merely replied.

And as the girl chuckled the Lugia leapt up and flew away, breaking the ceiling and a wall with the weight of his body and some water attacks in despair to leave the building.

The nearly-exploding Lawrence couldn't believe what was happening in front of him and so he howled more furious orders to the befuddled guards, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE, YOU INCONCIEVABLE MORONS!! THE LUGIA CANNOT ESCAPE!!"

Many Salamences and Dragonites flew like this in pursuit of the Legendary Pokemon (who was now far outside of the mansion), not wanting to know the wrath of the Pokemon collector if they failed. Hyper Beams, Ice Beams and many other kinds of beams flew at the girl and the Lugia's direction, but Daniel dodged them all. But more guards joined the ones already there and the scenery slowly became unbearable.

Hurt and tired from the escape and chase, the Sea Guardian could only think of one thing that would save them both. He prepared yet another Aeroblast while flying and held it long enough to hit all guards and the mansion far away. This way, they were already free, but Daniel had lost too much energy. Karen noticed this and quickly came to his aid.

The last thing the Lugia remembers is the girl calling Ross out of his PokeBall and watching him fly to the ground, involving him in a strange wave of Psychic energy that made him feel much lighter. After that, everything went dark...

* * *

Daniel woke up in a very different scenery, a light headache tormenting him. He found his body laid over several united regular-sized hospital beds and concluded he had been brought to a Pokemon Centre. The thing that surprised him the most was seeing all of Karen's Pokemon around him, looking at him, with their trainer as well. The past events were crystal clear on his mind.

"Yeah, you woke up!" Joey the Furret exclaimed.

The Lugia, stretching his wings, nodded and smiled. "I did. And thank you so much for having rescued me, you were brilliant in there."

"Don't mention it!" the emotional Joey replied, hugging the other one with more strength than expected.

After that, Daniel looked at the silent and nervous-looking Karen, smiling and greeting, "Hello there."

And she promptly replied, "Hi..."

And before she could go on, he said, "I think we need to talk, about those words you spoke to me through the glass..."

At these words, the entire Poke Gang stared in surprise and expectation (and Joey even let out one mischievous "Oh yeah!"), but the blonde quickly burst their bubble, saying, "Guys, please wait outside."

All of them protested, especially the Furret, but there was no way to disobey Karen's orders. The door closed shut behind them and Daniel spoke again.

"First of all, I think I should apologize for not having told you who I was from the beginning... But I really didn't want to mess this up again, I didn't want to lose you for good... I love you, Karen, and I wanted you to know that, to understand why I did what I did..."

And then it was the young woman's turn to speak.

"I know, Daniel, and I really see what you meant, even though it's probably too late. I was stupid to get mad at you when all you did was trying to protect me, when you were the greatest friend to me all along... I hope you can forgive me..."

The Lugia brushed one of his long fingers over the girl's cheek.

"I've already forgiven you, you came back for me."

And at this, Karen repeated the magical words she said at the mansion.

"I could never leave you, Daniel, I love you."

"Oh, come on, just kiss her already!!" Joey's excited voice was heard from behind the door.

And the Lugia was ready to do as the Furret said.

As the human and the Pokemon leant forward, Daniel's body changed one more time, glowing intensely and losing the shape he had gotten used to in the past few weeks. Arms became smaller and hands much better defined, whose fingers now carefully intertwined with several locks of Karen's blond hair. He lost most of his height and his neck suddenly became much shorter, his skin now free of the many silver feathers covering it. His body now fit in the width of just two beds and was completely without clothes (which had been ripped with the previous transformation) (thankfully, he was covered by a blanket xD). Finally, his head became human again, his spiky dark hair too invaded by Karen's hands and chocolate-brown eyes now shut, while his lips gladly found hers in their very first kiss.

Daniel had stopped glowing a while ago, but he felt like shining again, for the happiness going through his body could only be shown by means of an intense aura of light. Their mouths moved in synchrony for several seconds (which seemed to last much less to both of them) before the two parted. Nonetheless, Karen threw herself over Daniel in a loving, emotional embrace, not wanting to let him go ever again.

By this time, the Poke Gang was inside the room again, letting out some 'aww's to show how adorable the scene was.

Still locked in their embrace, Karen whispered to the boy she loved, "I'll gladly go back with you to LA... I know that was why you came here..."

But after some moments of consideration, Daniel shook his head, "No. We'll stay here and start our lives here. This is a much happier place, you were right all along. I know that only here you'll be happy..."

And the embrace went on, observed by all the couple's friends... But at the prospect of having the happiest life there with the one he loved, Daniel couldn't help but kiss Karen again, this time for much longer, acquiring the flavor he will love for his entire life.

* * *

But one thing neither of them noticed was a shadow peeking through the Pokemon Centre window. It was reporting what it saw with its Psychic powers.

"_They are holding now... And Daniel has returned to his human form... Oh, they're kissing... I think our job is done here..."_

"_Excellent, it took us a lot of effort, but it sure was worth it," _a different psychic voice said, one that seemed much more... aged. _"You can come back, Liadan."_

The shady figure opened broad wings and flew towards the forest, landing right next to an Abra, a Gardevoir, a Slowking and their trainer, an already very well-know character: Penelope.

Showing a wide, proud smile, the old woman said, _"We all did a wonderful job... Liadan," _she looked at the shade that was actually a female Xatu, _"Without your abilities to see the past or the future of the boy, we would never have thought of this...nor we would know the right time to act..."_

The bird remained motionless, but she too was smiling, _"You know how I am... I can't resist a good story..."_

Penelope went on smiling. _"Patty," _the almost sleeping Abra startled at the mention of her name, _"I don't what I'd do without your Teleport. You were essential to allow us to be there in time always..."_

"_Yeah, yeah..." _the little Pokemon replied, sighing. _"I just hope I can sleep without being interrupted from now on..." _Abras and their great need to sleep...

"_Maria," _at this, the Gardevoir faced the old lady, _"Thank you so much for looking after all of us, and mainly for not leaving my Arthur alone..."_

The beautiful Psychic-type beamed glamorously, embracing her trainer. _"That is our duty, Penelope."_

"_And Spencer..." _the Slowking had vanished from their sight. _"Where is Spencer?"_

With this question, the Xatu immediately entered a trance, replying, _"He just went for a walk... You know how he is."_

"_Yeah. Well, but he was also important to make Daniel believe..."_

All of them nodded, looking at the couple with a fulfilled grin gracing their expression. But human steps were heard behind them, as well as a male, deep, aged voice.

"Aren't you forgetting anyone, Penelope?"

The ancient lady turned around, her smile widening at the sight of the approaching old man. His eyes were intensely blue and, around his neck in a necklace, he carried a silver feather with a peculiar shape. Arthur Taylor put an arm around Penelope's shoulders and kissed her lips lightly, his wife's lips.

"Oh, yeah..." she admitted. "Thank you for keeping that portal constantly watched and letting us know of those two young people. And thank you for making the potion one more time..."

The old man smiled and replied, "The first time was harder, I didn't have a feather around and the recipe was well-hidden. But if becoming a Lugia was what you needed to forgive me, then I'd do anything to accomplish it. I still had some feathers from the time I took the potion myself. Who would guess our story would repeat itself on these two... It's a shame I never got the chance to meet them in person..."

"Yeah, sorry for having to keep you away from this..." Penelope explained. "But Karen had to see how terrible it would be to lose Daniel, so I had to lie a bit, I couldn't tell her you did all that to get me back... It's a shame too that they had to go through much more complications than us..."

"That's true, but everything ended up well and they're stronger now. And I have a feeling we'll meet them again soon..."

The Xatu entered her Foresight trance again, stating, _"Yes, of that we can be completely sure..."_

And they remained like this for several minutes, until they decided to leave this new couple alone and went away, until their help was needed one more time...

**THE END**

**Or is it?**

She has been running for such a long time now that her clawed paws hurt, hitting rocks, twigs, roots of trees inside that forest. She would fly, but _they_ would catch her, they would kill her like they killed her male. But she can't let that happen, she has a valuable possession to protect, in a time where her species faces extinction. The flame on the tip of her tail burns vividly, she is afraid they will find her faster like this...

The female Charizard runs across the forest with her egg on her small arms and a strange necklace around her long neck. Though she runs fast, the hunters catch up on her and she knows they'll get to her soon...

She stops and hides the egg somewhere safe, putting the necklace around it before flying away in the opposite direction.

This is a signal to the hunters, who shoot the female dragon and cry out in success. They quickly reach her dead body, but one of them asks, "What about the egg?"

And the other replies, "We have two grown-up Charizards, who cares about the egg?"

And they use a special kind of PokeBall to capture the dead body before leaving.

As for the egg, it remains hidden, waiting for one good soul to take it and look after it.

The necklace around it is now perfectly visible. A beautiful feather is attached to it. It isn't silver or peculiarly shaped, but it does seem to shine, to glisten with the seven colors of the rainbow...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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END OF CHAPTER

Yay!! Can you believe I finished this? This is my first complete story in my entire life and I'm so happy about it.

Thank you for everyone who has stuck with me this far, The Girl and the Lugia is a gift to everyone of you and it's my only wish that it is what everyone expected it to be!

The last part of this chapter is a small preview of this story's sequel. I'll start writing it right away, but I will focus on another fics first.

If anyone's interested, my next one will be a Stardust one (my favorite movie ever).

Anyway, if you have any question, suggestion, request, ..., please leave a review and I'll answer to you or go to my main page for an e-mail address.

It was a great pleasure writing to you :)

kathlaida-princess logging out...


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